Business Software Alliance [BSA] on IP Issues

The Business Software Alliance occupies a unique position in relations between Silicon Valley and Hollywood. The BSA supports strong copyright protection and enforcement, recognizing the value of copyright to protect software and the toll on the industry from software piracy, including recent congressional testimony by BSA President Robert Holleyman, and joint policy statements with the RIAA. However the BSA also is an advocate of innovation, as reflected by its amicus brief in the Grokster case in favor of retaining the Sony Betamax doctrine, and its support for H.R. 2795, the Patent Reform Act of 2005. A January, 2005 report titled "Intellectual Property in the 21st Century" lays out the BSA's views on copyrights and patents.
The BSA has recently released new white papers relating to IP, which could well serve as an indicator of where we are going.

The most recent is titled "Trade in the Digital Age," dated June 2005. It points to high piracy rates, inadequate IP laws, discriminatory government procurement preferences, discriminatory national technology standards, and high tariff rates as existing trade barriers that impede software industry growth.

It advocates use of the World Trade Organization's current Doha Round negotiations to address e-commerce and digital download issues that weren't contemplated in the Uruguay Round back in 1986. It argues that software delivered electronically should receive the same trade treatment as software delivered in tangible media, and electronic IT services delivered via the Internet should be confirmed as covered by existing trade commitments.

Another recent report, titled "Securing Cyberspace in the 21st Century," dated May 2005, advocates ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and creation of a presidential commission on cybercrime and identity theft, as well as increased law enforcement efforts.

Rodney D. Ryder