After the roundtable was over, a Commerce Department spokeswoman said that she could not recall such public outcry during a government roundtable. Security guards were called during the meeting, but stayed outside the room. Probably the loudest activist was Vincenzo, who says he works in the environmental movement and uses no other name. After Valenti yielded to Vincenzo, the New Yorker denounced the panel as unfairly stacked with big corporations. "That was not planned," Vincenzo said afterward, describing his impromptu presentation. "That was in response to some statements that (Valenti) made. I was at the boiling point and had to respond. The end user is the true stakeholder on this issue, and the end user is not being represented on that panel." After a brief statement, Vincenzo tried to turn the floor over to Stallman, but the Commerce Department's Bond vetoed that idea, saying that the rest of the audience could submit comments via the Web instead. "We have a structure here," Bond said. The assembled band of free software devotees said later that they believed they had won a commitment from the Commerce Department to include a representative in a future roundtable. But Bond did not seem to agree. "I'm not going to be dictated to," he said. Valenti predicted the US government would need to intervene in the debate over digital content and set security standards. The MPAA has welcomed a bill, written by Senate Commerce Chairman Fritz Hollings, a South Carolina Democrat, that restricts technology not adhering to government-approved "standard security technologies". The legendary lobbyist also said that he never "wanted to abolish the VCR" but acknowledged he had used vivid language during the debate in Congress in the 1980s. In 1982, he told a House committee that "the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." "I think the word injunction was mentioned in the lawsuit," replied Bob Schwartz, an attorney with the Home Recording Rights Coalition. "In the legislative context, the modest royalty fee was $25 to $50" per blank videotape. Preston Padden, the top lobbyist for Walt Disney, joined Valenti in endorsing legislation. "I don't believe we're going to solve the problem until we have the transparency and discipline of a government" solution, Padden said. Elizabeth Frazee, a vice president at AOL Time Warner, agreed. "The content industry is going to be looking to the government for help." Lobbyists for Intel, Microsoft and the Digital Media Association urged restraint. A representative of Philips Electronics said, "We're at the cusp of a discussion," and a resolution is far away. Also during the roundtable, the RIAA said that it has begun pressing for anti-copying technology in future digital radio standards.
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