WASHINGTON-The question of whether government can or should be able to forecast technology development in an attempt to solve a problem was on display in two venues this week.
“We need to be very careful about how the federal government tries to forecast what kind of innovations and new technologies are going to come to the forefront 10 years from now,” said John Sununu (R-N.H.).
Sununu is a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which held a hearing Wednesday on consumer privacy and government technology mandates.
This same issue, also known as digital rights management, was on display Tuesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard arguments in a case between Verizon Communications Inc. and the Recording Industry Association of America. Verizon and RIAA, representatives of which were also at Wednesday’s hearing, have been battling over whether the Digital Copyright Management Act requires Verizon to turn over the identities of subscribers who RIAA believes are infringing on music copyrights by using file peer-to-peer networks to obtain music free.
Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg questioned attorneys for both RIAA and Verizon about whether the use of peer-to-peer networks was contemplated by the DCMA, noting that such networks were barely on the radar screen and the words “peer to peer” do not appear in the law.
