Longtime Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), best known for campaign finance reform, will soon take center stage on technology legislation. It's a change that has everyone from consumer rights groups to media conglomerates scrambling to find new political allies.
McCain will chair the influential Senate Commerce Committee, which, along with the Judiciary Committee led by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), will dictate much of the copyright and intellectual property legislative agenda.
Consumer and technology groups that felt pushed around by the decidedly anti-technology former chairman, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), welcome McCain's ascension.
"I'm more optimistic than I was previously," said Joe Kraus, co-founder of DigitalConsumer.org, which lobbies to protect consumers' digital technology rights, including preserving the concept of fair use.
"Mr. McCain has shown a greater interest in making sure consumer rights are protected, particularly at his staff level. The previous chairman perceived these issues as enforcement issues, and not a balancing act between consumers and the content industry."
Much of this optimism is fueled by the change in leadership, not McCain's stance on technology issues, which isn't as clear-cut as his campaign finance reform agenda. He has a long-running battle with broadcasters on the issue of free airtime for political ads, and he has consistently pressed the Senate to hold auctions of digital television spectrum, rather than just handing the spectrum over to media companies.
The fear, many lobbyists point out, is that McCain will use intellectual property issues to force broadcasters to change their political ad practices at the expense of consumer rights.
"This makes people nervous on both sides of the issue," said Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies with the libertarian Cato Institute, referring to the change in leadership. "With Mr. Hollings, there was a very good idea what he thought, whether you agreed with him or not. But Mr. McCain has been a finger-in-the-wind populist, and it's not clear what people think about intellectual property."
Hatch, who heads the Senate Judiciary Committee, is more of a technology wild card, according to many lobbyists. He supports the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others believe restricts consumer rights.
But Hatch has also defended the public's fair-use rights in public hearings and openly chastised the entertainment industry.
In another important change, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) takes over the House Intellectual Property subcommittee from Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), who supports the DMCA and asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to prosecute people who download illegal files using peer-to-peer networks.
Consumer lobbyists have expressed relief that Republicans now have the upper hand in Congress -- although industry interests have already started working on legislators.
Last Tuesday, a broad coalition of copyright industries -- including the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America -- sent an open letter to the new Congress asking representatives to reject legislation that limits efforts to stop online piracy. Whether Republicans will hear the industry's plea remains to be seen. But industry executives and legislators may find they agree on issues surrounding digital radio, digital television and media consolidation.
House Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) continues to push for a broadcast flag to be embedded in digital television signals so content companies can limit the transfer of recorded movies between devices. Tauzin has worked with companies behind closed doors to hammer out a market solution for digital television, while the Federal Communications Commission mandates standards to speed the adoption of DTV.
"We've been seeing different members of Congress get together ... and behind the scenes, there has been a lot of cooperation," said Consumer Electronics Association spokeswoman Jenny Miller.
