Looks like I’ll have to burn her a CD and send it to her. At this point, I don’t think she’s listening anyway. (James and Marybeth)
Her complete testimony follows this clip from Billboard Magazine…

Courts: A Powerful Boost
By BILL HOLLAND
Billboard Magazine
September 20, 2003
WASHINGTON. D.C.- The nation’s top copyright cop has strongly endorsed the record industry’s right to file subpoenas and sue those who illegally download songs over the Internet.
During testimony Sept. 8 before the Senate Judiciary Committee. U.S. Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters provided the clearest federal statement vet in support of industry efforts to combat piracy.
In addition to endorsing those efforts, spearheaded by the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), she said that if pending court cases go against the industry, Congress would have to remedy the situation.
“Mr. Chairman, make no mistake. The law is unambiguous,” she said. “Using peer-to-peer networks to copy or distribute copyrighted works without permission is infringement, and copyright owners have every right to invoke the power of the courts to combat such activity.”
As head of the U.S. Copyright Office, Peters is the official interpreter of U.S. intellectual property law.
She told lawmakers that a review would be necessary even if it means revisiting the underlying legal principle regarding copyrighted material put forth in the landmark 1985 Supreme Court case Sony v. Betamax. That decision gave the makers of video recording machines limited liability for any illegal copying on their devices.
Her testimony comes as the U.S. Court of Appeals is about to take up two important court challenges.
In a case being heard in Washington, D.C., Verizon argues that the record industry’s use of the information subpoena process authorized in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is illegal.
The other case before a federal court in Central California involves the RIAA’s appeal of a lower court’s ruling absolving Grokster, Kazaa and other file services from liability for content traded over their networks.
Peters made clear that in her view, the RIAA, representing copyright owners, is on solid legal ground in both cases.
“The Digital Millennium Copyright Act represents a carefully crafted and balanced bargain, which utilizes the incentives created by pre-existing doctrines to encourage all stakeholders to work cooperatively to realize the potential of the Internet while respecting legal rights,” she testified.
“Taken together, the positions of Kazaa and Grokster, along with the arguments now made by Verizon, if they prevail, will leave copyright owners with little or no remedy against the most widespread phenomena of [copyright] infringement in the history of this country” she continued.
“Thus, she said, “it is incumbent upon this committee and this Congress to see that if the judiciary fails to enforce the DMCA and therefore fails to provide the protection to which copyrighted works are entitled, the legislature does.”
Peters told Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, that every court that has addressed the issue has agreed that such activity is infringement.
“It can also be a crime, and the perpetrators of such a crime are subject to fines and jail time,” she said.
She added that efforts to “rationalize or justify” illegal behavior with allegations of inflated profits or unfair dealings with recording artists are “diversionary tactics” that do not alter the fundamental fact that they are trying to defend illegal activity.
“There are some,” she said, “who argue that copyright infringement on peer-to-peer systems is not truly harmful to copyright owners and may even help them generate new interest in their products.
The law leaves that judgment to the copyright owner, and it ought not to be usurped by self-interested third parties who desire to use the copyright owner’s work,” she said.
Peters characterized Grokster and Kazaa, which the Central District of California ruled are not liable as secondary copyright infringers, as businesses that are “dependent upon massive copyright infringement.”
“Any application of the law that allows them to escape liability for lack of knowledge of those same infringements is inherently flawed,” she said. Peters added that hanging over all these cases is the Supreme Court’s decision on Sony.
“It is perhaps a commentary on that opinion that almost 20 years later, we still have such uncertainty that three courts seem to interpret and apply it in three different ways,” she said.
“If the case law evolves as to compel the opposite result of findings of liability for the owners of Kazaa and Grokster, I believe Sony should be revisited either by the Supreme Court or by Congress.”
Statement of Marybeth Peters
The Register of Copyrights
before the
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
108th Congress, 1st Session
September 9, 2003
Pornography, Technology, and Process: Problems and Solutions on Peer-to-Peer Networks
Mr. Chairman, Senator Leahy, Members of the Committee, good afternoon. It is always a pleasure to appear before this Committee and I thank you for inviting me to present the views of the Copyright Office today at this very timely hearing. As you were among the leaders in drafting and enacting the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (