Another DMCA Attack Looms

ndege writes "In this Wired article, Rep. Rick Boucher is finally ready to try and dismantle a key part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, said last July that he wanted to amend the DMCA to permit certain 'fair uses' of digital content, such as backing up an audio CD by bypassing copy protection technology. In an interview on Thursday, Boucher said he now has sufficient support from the tech industry, librarians, and Internet activists."

What kind of research?

[Lothar+0]

Boucher believes that people should be allowed to circumvent technological protection for research...

What sort of research? That which shows the actual encryption schemes to be worthless (ala Edward Felton), or the type of research that requires circumvention so that work can be done?

In my case, my research as an academic partly relies on downloading anime from the Net since my topic concerns how anime fan subculture interprets it. This requires some circumventing of "anti-piracy" devices somewhere down the pike. I'm not intending to be thrifty through illegal activities. Rather, there is just no way I as a broke grad student can afford to even rent, let alone buy the anime without going into the hole to do a good research project. Hopefully, Boucher's amendment will cover cases such as mine as well as those the 1992 Fair Use Act intended to cover.

Hey Rep. Boucher

[Spackler]

The best thing you could do for the DMCA, and copyright law in general, is to go down the hall and beat the crap out of Senator Fritz Hollings!

Re:What kind of research?

[Anonymous Coward]

In my case, my research as an academic partly relies on downloading anime from the Net
Yeah, and my research involves downloading as much Seinfeld and Buffy as I can find. Maybe I should go study at your university.

Re:Hey Rep. Boucher

[Rogerborg]

• The best thing you could do for the DMCA, and copyright law in general, is to go down the hall and beat the crap out of Senator Fritz Hollings!

That's a pretty atavistic attitude. Civilised people (even you colonial fellows) have evolved much more genteel methods to settle disputes: we debate them. It's simple and elegant: you pay someone to tell you what to say, you pay someone to tell the press what you said and how they should report it, and if all else fails, you pay someone to change the law to make you right. Er, wait, or perhaps that's the problem. Maybe you're onto something after all. ;)

Re:Give this man your cash

[BroccoliGod]

What's to stop someone from buying up billboard space in downtown Charleston, SC and putting up ads that read "Sen. Hollings thinks YOU are a criminal" with maybe a

link to a website with a rational, well reasoned point by point explanation of the son-of-SSSCA (forgot the new version) and why that means the consumer is a criminal.

Dude! You can't click on a billboard.

Re:Hey Rep. Boucher

[Loki_1929]

That might take some doing.

Before getting to Hollings, he'd have to get through Hilary Rosen, Jack Valenti, and Mickey Mouse; each of whom guards Hollings' office 24/7.

I've got $50 on Mickey.

Re:Don't Ammend the DMCA!

[shotfeel]

Of course this is pretty much taken care of if you simply say that you can only circumvent for fair use. Most of us don't have a "fair use" for nuclear weapons, despite what some may think.

Re:Dmca

[liquid_schwartz]

We would need to heold an election immediately, nobody would be left after the corporate whores went away ;-)