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."

Dmca

[Mrdzone]

Maybe we can finnaly have someone on our side in fighting this battle, lord knows we need it since we can't very well talk about it ourselves wouldn't want to be prosecuted now would we.

How about DMCA is USA only?

[kiwipeso]

Personally I'd rather not get prosecuted for doing stuff that is legal in my country, just because american senators are paid millions by disney.
Actually, to hell with the laws my country wants to copy from the USA too... I've decided to smuggle 300 kb crypto I've got to some free-speech advocates I know in america.

Finally...

[GnomeKing]

I'm glad that someone such as boucher is taking this up seriously now

However, I still feel that the only way to get the DMCA changed is to get joe public behind the changes... highlight to the non-slashdot reading public why and how their "right" of fair use of something they have bought is being taken away... Do that and the DMCA will have to be changed
(of course... its not as easy as that - but nothing is)

Re:Don't Ammend the DMCA!

[linatux]

You'd actually trust the same people who enact laws like DMCA to fiddle around with the Constitution ... and expect things to come out rosier?

and people say that faith in an invisible God is wierd!

Joy and exultation!

[Chardish]

Finally, there's someone who thinks we should be able to do what we want to do with the music and movies that we buy!

I always assumed that those "CDs" we buy were kind of on indefinite loan from the media companies, so there would be no way that we would be able to decide how to use them! What a glorious future lies ahead of us!

Seriously: I would love to see someone write a '2084' that would show what the world would be like if all this copyright and consumer rights stuff got out of hand, and fell into the hands of the corporations...

-Evan

Responds to E-mail Too!

[JLester]

As a constituent of Boucher's, I sent an e-mail to him after his CNet interview a couple of months ago thanking him for his support of fair use for digital media. He sent a very nice response detailing how fair use rights for digital media is one of his highest priorities. His fair-use rights included custom compilation CDs and circumventing technological protection measures in order to archive or excerpt material. The last part really covers almost anything we've been worried about.

He also stated that the potential to penalize and prosecute individuals who excercise such rights is an affront to First Amendment protections, a harm to consumers, and inhibits the creation and public use of intellectual property!

To say I'm glad to be represented by him is an understatement.

Jason

Re:How about repealing it?

[mpe]

Copyrighted music was already protected under copyright law. Fair use was already protected under other laws. Why do we keep writing and amending and rewriting laws that do the SAME THING as previous laws?

Maybe there are other areas of legislation which need looking into. But everyone is too busy messing around with "supercriminalization" type destractions.

The only thing the DMCA did was make it hard on cryptographers, security analysts, and researchers to do their jobs and report their results. You want unbreakable crypto? (Well, that will likely never happen, but do you want it to be so hard that it isn't worth the effort?) Then honest people have to try to break it and report on it's strengths and weaknesses. If you pass a million laws saying you can't circumvent encryption, someone in another country where our laws don't apply can still do it. People in America who aren't going to obey the laws anyway can still do it. And people who wouldn't steal the music, but just want to break it for the challenge will still do it.

Or possibly for the less abstract purpose of seeing if uss of the encryption system (a lot of potentially strong encryption is let down by a poor implimentation) is actually worth bothering with in the first place.

It is illegal to steal cars, but "slim-jims" are legal, why? Because they can help you get your car open if you lock your keys in.

There are places where so called "burglar tools" are illegal. Even though it is perfectly legal to break into your own house and these often apply to lockpicking tools, which are of little practical use to most burglars anyway.

A letter from Congressman Boucher

[jhines0042]

What follows is the thank you letter that I received from Congressman Boucher for writing him about this subject.


Congress of the United States

House of Representatives

Rick Boucher

9th District, Virginia

[e-mail]

HTTP://www.house.gov/boucher/

May 3, 2002

Thank you for your kind expression of support for my efforts to prevent the erosion of fundamental fair use rights in the digital era.

Please be assured that reaffirming the rights of consumers to exercise legitimate fair use rights is among my highest priorities. From such routine practices as making custom compilation CDs of lawfully-acquired songs for personal use to more advanced actions such as circumventing technological protection measures in order to archive or excerpt material for research and educational purposes, the American public traditionally has enjoyed the ability to make convenience and incidental copies of copyrighted works without obtaining the prior consent of the copyright owner. The potential to penalize or prosecute individuals who exercise such rights, or who create or publish software and devices which facilitate the exercise of individual fair use rights, affronts First Amendment protections, harms consumers, and ultimately inhibits the creation and public use of intellectual property.

As Co-Chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus, my work in Congress focuses on the intersection of the Internet and other technologies with our nation's intellectual property laws. I intend to introduce various legislative measures which will protect fair use rights, and your expression of support for these efforts with your Congressional representatives will be most welcome.

I appreciate your taking the time to share your views with me. With kind regards and best wishes, I remain

Sincerely,

Rick Boucher
Member of Congress

DMCA is worthless

[Iberian]

All that this will do is stop a few of those who lack computer literacy the ability to copy their cd's to their hard drive. It is obvious that any sort of protection will be overiden by the technological elite from either America or somewhere else in the world. With the growing use and increased user friendliness of computers anyone who is smart enough to rip a cd will be able to find the crack online.

Yellow Journalism Email?

[mikeboone]

I remeber a couple years ago there was a chain-type email going around warning people that congress was going to start charging $ to send email or something like that. It was pretty inflamatory, but looked somewhat legitimate by naming people and bill numbers (even though they were fake if I remember). I believe congress got tons of calls and mail about this issue.

So someone needs to write up an inflamatory email about not being able to listen to your CDs anymore, due to Senator Smith and his bill S.9876. Then we just start forwarding it to everybody, and let them get on their congresscritters.

Out of interest...

[26199]

Has anyone ever had an audio/data CD stop working on them? I haven't... and certainly have never felt the need to back them up.

So is this 'right to back up' as in 'right to copy and give to all my friends'? Or is it 'right to back up' as in, 'we will not be controlled to that extent'?

I can agree with the second... the DMCA goes too far... but the first, well... get over it, you can't expect to get everything for free...

And remember, the important things in life are free.

Re:Give this man your cash

[soulcuttr]

Rinikusu said
My question is, why haven't we done this already?

It has been my observation that while there is a lot of collective angst on the internet and on Slashdot, very little of that energy is turned into a productive solution. People feel too powerless to affect the giant political machine of the United States -- and who could blame them? Any time that I have written to my senators, it has changed nothing. Any time that I have spoken up even in local government, it has changed nothing. It could be that it's because I live in a region dominated by conservatives, but even so I would hope that reason (MY reason.. heh) would win out. Maybe the majority does want a draconian government to rule them with an iron fist...

</pessimism>

I guess we keep trying, though.

-Sou|cuttr