101
Mr. C
OLLINS
. Well, I think—and that is something that we are
going to have to get—you know, elevate our different standards. I
think, as we get into this new realm and we are looking at new
areas, I think this is coming out as a question that needs to be ad-
dressed.
But I want to move on to something else. And I am not going
to do digital First Sale. We could spend all day on that issue and
how we get——
But, I read with interest, and I think it really goes to your writ-
ten testimony, which I read and along with others. And it goes
back to the issue, in my mind, of protection of rights and encour-
aging innovation and being a part of this process. And I think, in
reading your written testimony, it became interesting to me, espe-
cially when you said, ‘‘Consumers are creators too, not just passive
recipients.’’ And, as I look through that, your—as I read through
it, I came to this quote here and it says, ‘‘Of course, some manipu-
lations of creative works can rise under issues under copyright law,
but there is no question that the flexibility of digital technology fa-
cilitates greater involvement and interaction with creative works.’’
I want to stop right there and I am going to come back to it.
And then you go on, just a little bit further, and talk about inno-
vation in the marketplace, which is interesting. You start off by
saying, ‘‘To be clear, the fact the consumer increasingly expect on
demand access to the copyrighted content of their choice does not
mean they are legally entitled to it any more than they would be
entitled to get it all for free.’’ But then, you come down by the end
of that paragraph, you said, ‘‘But where the market fails to cater
to substantial customer appetites, that represents lost opportunity.
Everyone is better off in the market—if the market can develop
new offerings that recognize what consumers want and find and
provide a way for that.’’
And then, the next page over it says, ‘‘Encouraging the continued
development of innovative business and technology is the most pro-
ductive thing that Congress can do,’’ and the reason was—the
statement was, ‘‘evolving content providing convenient and attrac-
tive options for satisfying consumer demand is the best defense
against widespread infringement.’’
In other words, what I gained from listening to this is, one—
there are two parts that I would like for you to talk about. One,
to have the creative manipulation by users, you have to inherently
have a starting point to do that. They cannot—they are not cre-
ating in—according to what you framed your example, they are not
creating ex nihlio. They are not creating from nothing. They are
creating from what someone else has created. And, in your state-
ment there was, is that the flexibility has caused this. And I think
there has to be an understanding that there is a creative right
there. And that there is a property right issue.
As you move through your testimony though, it seemed to go to
the fact of this—that, if we can get it, then we should have a right
to it. And I think that—I would like to hear your balance there.
Because it seems to me you are, in some ways, you are contradic-
tory in stating that there is a content right, you accept that.
But, as someone said, and I am not sure who it was and it may
not have been anyone on this panel, said, ‘‘they were just slow to