FAIR USE CHANGES TO THE DMCA?

According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, moves are afoot in the USA to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in favour of consumers. Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle are reintroducing a bill that, if passed, would lead to fair use defences to circumvention of digital right management measures similar to those under traditional copyright law. Exceptions to the DMCA regime are proposed for non-copyright infringing uses (such as enabling a a DRM-protected work to be read on another reader) and for scientific research. The bill also calls for works which have been protected by DRM to be labelled so that consumers can know that the goods which they are buying are copy-protected before they buy them.



The IPKat is generally in favour of fair use defences. Likewise, he sees no objection to consumers being told the true nature of the products they are buying. He waits with interest to see if this bill will get off the ground.



DMCA here

Read the bill here

Opponents of the DMCA here, here and here

Avoid the DMCA here