Progress and Freedom Foundation: Leave DMCA alone, don't permit circumvention! [ip]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@xxxxxxxx>
Date: October 6, 2005 3:10:55 PM EDT
To: politech@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Politech] Progress and Freedom Foundation: Leave DMCA
alone, don't permit circumvention! [ip]
In Patrick Ross' commentary below, TPM=technical protection measures,
aka anti-copying mechanisms.
I think Ross is misguided, irresponsibly overstates the alleged harm
of permitting circumvention for fair use, and ignores the documented
problems caused by the DMCA. A more rigorous free-market approach is
here:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/06/13/new-article-on/
But nevertheless, the Progress and Freedom Foundation is an
influential think tank with many fans among Republicans on Capitol
Hill. (PFF recently hired Michael Powell's legal advisor, for
instance, and its board is primarily former Reagan administration
officials.) No wonder DMCA reform is going nowhere.
-Declan
---
http://news.com.com/2010-1025_3-5889596.html
Here's a surefire way to stifle innovation
By Patrick Ross
Published: October 6, 2005, 4:00 AM PDT
...A well-meaning U.S. Congressman, Rick Boucher of Virginia, is the
author of the legislation in question. He first tried to make
circumvention of copy-protection mechanisms legal back in 1998, when
Congress was debating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. His
effort to amend the bill failed.
Since then, he has been continuing his crusade through standalone
bills; his version in this Congress is HR-1201. Boucher claims that
digital rights management (DRM) on DVDs, CDs and other mediums can
stifle fair use. The U.S. Copyright Office largely has disagreed in
DMCA review proceedings, but Boucher nonetheless persists...
But if HR-1201 becomes law, every consumer could legally hack any TPM
by claiming fair use, and as fair use isn't codified, there would be
as many definitions of it as there are consumers. Consumers would be
legally sanctioned to break their contracts with the content provider.
No sane business operator enters a contract in which one party has
the right to disregard its terms at will, but that's what HR-1201
permits. That hated TPM would disappear from the market, as there's
no reason to employ a lock if everyone has a legal right to the key.
But as TPM leaves, so do the digital offerings that come with it...
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