Another DMCA Attack Looms 236
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."
As a po' European, I ask you to support this (Score:4, Informative)
A little light over here please? Thank you. (Score:3, Informative)
I'm not yet daring to hope that anything substantive comes out of this, but anything that helps draw more attention to the injustices of the DMCA has my full approval. It seems that whenever I mention this law to non-tech friends I get blank stares. Maybe they think that "DMCA" is one of the Beastie Boys [virtualave.net] or something, I dunno.
Anyway, I just wanted to say, "Go git 'em, Ricky! Sic 'em up, boah!"
Re:GNU Philosophy in Government (Score:1, Informative)
Re:How about repealing it? (Score:3, Informative)
Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 of the US Code first defines what fair use is, and then states that for these cases (which fall under the definition of fair use) that use of the copyrighted work doesn't infringe on the copyright. You're technically right about fair use not being protected by law per se, but your post implies that it's only a judicial precedent. It's not - it's a clearly defined escape clause in copyright usage.
Of course, IANAL, YMMV, ROLLIN HAND, but it's worth noting that there already exists a "concept of fair use" in the law. Legislation like the DMCA usually comes about when people don't know and/or understand the laws they already have.