Judiciary gets earful on copyright

John Eggerton from Broadcasting & Cable reports:

"The bill is backed by Hollywood, which is trying to protect its intellectual property from easy digital pirating.

The groups argue that the amendment would undermine the 1984 Betamax case that established consumer home copying rights. "This clear standard has given venture capitalists, engineers and manufacturers the confidence and certainty that they could invest their resources in developing a wide range of consumer products without facing copyright liability. these products include personal computers, scanners, CD burners, modems, instant messaging products, and the software that enables them to operate. S. 2560 would eliminate this confidence and certainty."

The ad hoc group included Public Knowledge, Google, Intel, the American Library Association, and the Consumer Electronics Association and a veritable host of others."