[DMCA-Activists] Rick Boucher vs DMCA

[Matthew Caron]

From Wired:

WASHINGTON -- 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 -- to feel 
comfortable introducing his bill "in the next month."

"If I had introduced it six months ago, you wouldn't have seen this kind 
of support," said Boucher.

As soon as it's introduced, Boucher's proposal seems certain to be 
targeted for defeat by content lobbyists including Hollywood, the 
recording industry and the publishing industry.

Boucher plans to rewrite section 1201 of the DMCA, which says, "No 
person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively 
controls access to a work protected under this title."

It doesn't require that the person bypassing the scheme is doing it to 
infringe on someone's copyright. Boucher believes that people should be 
allowed to circumvent technological protection for research, criticism 
or fair use purposes, such as reading an encrypted e-book on another 
computer.

~~~~~~~~

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,52298,00.html

Not too shabby.
--
Please do not send me Word or PowerPoint attachments,
or request that I send them to you.
See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
~~ Matt Caron ~~