US Firms Strike Internet Copyright Deal

The leading trade associations for America's music and technology industries have negotiated a landmark compromise over copyright for internet downloads of music and films.

The agreement attempts to head off government intervention in the rising debate over what consumers can do with copyrighted material they have purchased.

The battle over copyrights, pitting Hollywood against Silicon Valley, has emerged as a central policy question for Congress.

Under the new agreement, lobbyists for some of America's largest technology companies, including Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Dell, will work together to convince Congress to abandon plans to amend laws that would broaden the rights of consumers, such as explicitly allowing viewers to make backup copies of DVDs for personal use or copy songs onto handheld listening devices. The companies are also expected to confirm their support for aggressive enforcement against digital piracy.

In exchange, the Recording Industry Association of America will put pressure on the government to ditch requirements to build controls into future generations of entertainment devices that make it more difficult for consumers to share music and movies. Technology companies have complained that the controls are too expensive and complex.

The agreement could affect a proposal by Democrat senator Ernest Hollings to prohibit the manufacture or distribution of "digital media devices" - such as handheld music players - unless they include government-approved copy restriction technology.

The agreement, which is expected to be announced at 1830 GMT today in Washington, was negotiated between the RIAA, the Business Software Alliance and the Computer Systems Policy Project. The software alliance's members include Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe, while the policy project is made up of chief executives from IBM, Intel, Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

Officials for these organisations have so far declined to discuss the agreement in any detail, saying only that they had achieved "landmark consensus". The agreement politically isolates the powerful Motion Picture Association of America, which was noticeably absent from discussions. The MPAA has aggressively supported government plans for built-in locking controls on new devices, such as DVD recorders. A spokesman for the group declined to comment.