Lawmakers Tout DMCA Killer (RIAA and MPAA pissed)

[Ignacio Upton]

By Luke O'Brien| Also by this reporter
13:20 PM Feb, 28, 2007

A bill introduced Tuesday by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Virginia) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-California) would loosen some of the tight restrictions on consumer behavior imposed by the draconian Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 -- something the lawmakers say is long overdue.

The Boucher and Doolittle bill (.pdf), called the Fair Use Act of 2007, would free consumers to circumvent digital locks on media under six special circumstances.

Librarians would be allowed to bypass DRM technology to update or preserve their collections. Journalists, researchers and educators could do the same in pursuit of their work. Everyday consumers would get to "transmit work over a home or personal network" so long as movies, music and other personal media didn't find their way on to the internet for distribution.

Consumers could also circumvent technological measures to skip past objectionable content, or add a piece of media to an incomplete compilation already in the public domain.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72833-0.html?tw=wn_index_2


(Doolittle is still a corrupt POS, but even a broken clock is right twice a day...or once a day in his case.)

[AX10]

1. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act went too far.

While I understand the need to protect "intellectual property rights", this bill was but another Clinton/GOP Congress give away to the corporations.

[Ignacio Upton]

3. Unfortunately, this bill doesn't go far enough

It's a watered-down version of the the DMCRA (Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act) which went further in chipping away at DRM. That bill was introduced twice by Boucher and Doolittle (2003 and 2005) and got nowhere under the Republican Congress. I'm wondering why Boucher didn't just reintroduce the DMCRA this time, now that we control Congress? I'll take it for now, but still...

[Greyskye]

2. gotta agree w/ you re. Do-little

Damn but that man is a pimple on the hemorrhoids of history! :puke: