Right DRM wrongs, says the EFF
p2pnet news view | DRM:- The entertainment industry inspired DMCA stops people from circumventing DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control applications and “other technical protection measures”.
It’s also being used to chill competition, free speech and fair use.
Every three years, however, the US Copyright Office decides whether or not to grant exemptions and with that in mind, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) filed three Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) applications.
Hollywood claims ripping DVDs is always a violation of the DMCA and one EFF filing asks for a DMCA exemption for amateur creators who use excerpts from DVDs to create new, noncommercial works.
“Remix is what free speech looks like in the 21st century, which is why thousands of noncommercial remix videos are posted to YouTube every day,” says EFF senior IP attorney Fred von Lohmann. “The DMCA wasn’t intended to drive fair use underground.”
Another requests an exemption for cell phone jailbreaking — liberating handsets to run applications from sources other than those approved by the phone maker.
“The DMCA is supposed to block copyright infringement, not competition,” says von Lohmann.
Carriers have threatened cell phone unlockers under the DMCA to protect their anti-competitive business models, even though there is no copyright infringement involved in the unlocking. Instead, the digital locks on cell phones make it harder to resell, reuse, or recycle the handset.
The EFF’s third filing asks for a renewal of an exemption previously granted for unlocking cell phones so they can be used with any telecommunications carrier.
The Copyright Office will be accepting public comments on exemption proposals until February 2, 2009. It’ll hold hearings in Washington, DC, and California in the spring 2009, with final decisions being announced in October.
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News 1130 – , December , 2008
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December 4th, 2008 at 10:53 am
The DMCA DRM wrongs are fine as they are, thanks.