Intel urges p2p protection

Dawn C. Chmielewski of the San Jose Mercury News -- a reporter and a newspaper that get it -- has this: Intel urges high court to protect file-sharing.

Intel gets it, too. Except for its cave-in on the broadcast flag rule, Intel has been at the forefront of protecting users' digital rights.

Money passages:

Twenty-eight Hollywood studios and music companies have asked the court to modify Sony Betamax to afford the artistic communities new protections in the digital age. Hollywood wants the Supreme Court to either require filtering of copyrighted works or change the definition of what kinds of technologies are entitled to protection. The legal standard would no longer be that a technology be capable of ``significant non-infringing'' use but rather whether the technology's primary purpose is legitimate.

``The real threat of this case is that content owners are asking the Supreme Court to write grossly broader rules so the suppliers of any tool will be liable for what people do with it,'' said Michael Page of Keker & Van Nest, who is representing Grokster.

Twenty-three briefs were filed Tuesday in support of StreamCast and Grokster. Among them was a group of computer scientists that includes David Clark, one of the original designers of the Internet. Also signing on is the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group representing 450 firms that account for about 85 percent of all new business funding.

Intel, whose own growth mirrors the rise of the digital age, told the court the entertainment industry is seeking to rewrite the rules that are the building blocks of the information economy. Hollywood would impose new, vague tests that would require innovators to do the impossible -- correctly predict how consumers will use a technology, the company's legal brief stated. That would leave tech companies facing limitless liability, Intel argued.

``Here's the core problem, not just for Intel, but all the companies that innovate around Intel's products,'' said James M. Burger, a Washington attorney who prepared Intel's brief. ``How do you know what your product is going to be used for out of the box?'' ...

The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California-Berkeley filed a brief on behalf of 60 professors. The center argued that the kind of changes the entertainment industry proposes would dramatically shift the balance of power between the entertainment and technology industries.

The professors said the Sony ruling led to a period of unprecedented technological innovation and economic prosperity. Changing the standards now would create more unpredictability for technological innovators.