The film and music industries cast the debate in terms of piracy, arguing that copy protections are needed to ensure people don't download movies and music without compensation to the copyright holders.

The tech industry counters that free-flowing downloads of movies, music and other digital works could drive demand for broadband Internet connections, which it hopes would in turn spur innovation and increase sales of new technologies.

"If this bill were to pass, it would render ineffective, worthless and useless any protection measure we would have in place to protect a $100 million movie," Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said of the Lofgren bill. "You could download a million movies a day, and no penalty for it."

Caught in the middle of the debate are consumers, whose "fair use" rights are in limbo. The courts have long upheld consumers' rights to make personal copies of songs, TV shows and other copyrighted works. But the move to digital raises the question of where to draw the line, when near-perfect copies can be easily shared over the Internet with large numbers of other users.

"Lofgren's bill aims to restore what Congress thought it was doing — preserving fair use for people who have lawful rights to use stuff,'' said Paula Samuelson, a law professor at University of California-Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law. "The Lofgren bill offers meaningful protections for a number of ordinary activities by consumers that should be lawful under copyright law but about which the law is presently ambiguous.'' About time fair use was called something other than "piracy."