Back in 1984, well before the Internet age, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision, Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. The court defended the sale of video cassette recorders for private home taping. Writing for the 5-4 majority, Justice John Paul Stevens sensibly observed that prohibiting noncommercial uses that had "no demonstrable effect upon the potential market for, or the value of, the copyrighted work...would merely inhibit access to ideas without any countervailing benefit."

Film industry leaders, while not necessarily discounting the importance of the ruling as a catalyst for such innovations as CD burners and iPods, argue that the decision, intentionally or not, has given a green light to activity not meeting any fair use criteria.

As a matter of practical necessity, it is often necessary to bite the bullet and allow unauthorized use. If copyright exclusivity were enforced with fetishistic zeal, tens of millions of Americans by now would have been fined and/or jailed for "crimes" committed at Kinko's. Bar bands across our land would have to secure copyright permission every time they cover another artist's song.

Yet when exceptions become commonplace, at some point they're not exceptions anymore; they're the rule. Even lawmakers and jurists sympathetic to the need for safe harbors from copyright infringement suits understand that free use of another person's work has its limits.

Certain members of Congress want a narrower interpretation of fair use. Nearly a year ago Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc., backed by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation, the Digital Transition Content Security Act (H.R. 4569). The measure would outlaw the manufacture or sale of electronic devices that convert analog video signals into digital ones, unless the makers of encoding devices adhere to an industry-approved plan to curb redistribution. Even assuming compliance, the maximum allowable pixel resolution would be 720 x 480.

Such restriction, say backers, is necessary because anyone with a PC-based digital video recorder can convert copyright-protected digital material to an analog format, strip away the protection, and shift the material back to a digital format, and with only a negligible loss in visual and sound quality. MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman believes the bill "will promote more consumer choice as it protects copyright owners in the digital age."

Opponents think otherwise, and are ready to do battle, as they did, successfully, in the last Congress against the Senate's "Induce Act." Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn, in recent House testimony, stated the Sensenbrenner bill would mandate a "one-size-fits-all technology that has not been the subject of public or even inter-industry scrutiny." She added that last year's unanimous Supreme Court ruling in MGM v. Grokster gives ample copyright protection against abusive peer-to-peer file-sharing anyway (the defendant, Grokster, had to pay $50 million in damages to movie studios and record companies).

The best way out of this impasse may be for Hollywood to join the bastards rather than sue them. Film studios have taken legal action against any number of ISPs and individuals, but over the long run, they may find the approach of iTunes Music Store (available from Apple Computer, allowing Mac and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music) more profitable and less time-consuming. The phenomenon of YouTube, just sold to Google, Inc. for a cool $1.65 billion, gives testimony to that.

Writing in the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology, Anna Engelman and Dale Scott observe that while "e-piracy is clearly theft," filing lawsuits is not realistic at a time when 400,000 to 600,000 movies are illegally downloaded each day. Hollywood, argue the authors, "should not waste valuable resources and damage public goodwill by pursuing e-pirates in court," especially since many of the violators are minors.

Searching for compromises with unauthorized users may well lessen the need for lawsuits over the long run. Still, piracy too often harms our economy; rips off studios and filmmakers; and breeds contempt for the law. Those are sound reasons for discouraging it.