While we were at the FMC Rick Boucher reintroduced the DMRCA and we (Tom Barger and I) were the ones to make it known, to the conference with just about an hour left to go. After notifying Tom by E-mail we called Congressman Boucher's office and they faxed it over to the hotel and the staff made copies for us to pass out. Read the bill inside.


Johanna Mikes and Tom Barger

Lawmakers Urge Protection of Fair Use
Jan 7, 2003

Initiating what is certain to be a contentious debate during the 108th Congress, U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA), John Doolittle (R-CA), Spencer Bachus (R-AL) and Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) introduced on Tuesday the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act with the announced goal of protecting the Fair Use rights of the users of copyrighted material and, thereby enabling the consumers of digital media to make use of it in ways that enhance their personal convenience. The legislation (H.R. 107) is identical to that which Boucher and Doolittle introduced during the Fall of 2002.

Maintaining that Fair Use rights are severely threatened with respect to the consumers of digital media, the legislators propose amending a 1998 law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was enacted at the behest of motion picture studios, the recording industry, and book publishers.

"The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before. Historically, the nation’s copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the Fair Use rights of the users of copyrighted material," Boucher said. "The re-introduced legislation will assure that consumers who purchase digital media can enjoy a broad range of uses of the media for their own convenience in a way which does not infringe the copyright in the work," Boucher explained.

The bill addresses two key provisions of the 1998 law which prohibit the circumvention of a technical protection measure guarding access to a copyrighted work even if the purpose of the circumvention is to exercise consumer Fair Use rights. The bill re-introduced this week would limit the scope of the prohibition to circumvention for the purpose of copyright infringement. Circumvention for the purpose of exercising Fair Use rights would be permitted under the legislation.

"We believe it is entirely proper to outlaw circumvention for the purpose of copyright infringement; however, a person who is circumventing a technical measure solely for the purpose of using that material under classic Fair Use principles should be free to do so," Doolittle said.

The bill also amends the provisions of the 1998 law which prohibit the manufacture, distribution or sale of technology which enables circumvention of the protection measures. Under the current law, trafficking in those technologies is a crime if the technology was primarily designed to be used for copyright infringement. Claiming that this legal standard is too subjective to give manufacturers confidence to introduce new products, the legislation would instead focus on whether or not the technology had substantial non-infringing uses. If the technology is capable of substantial non-infringing use, the manufacture, distribution, and sale of the product would be lawful under the bill they have sponsored.

"Without a change in the law, individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media if their use of the media within the home is severely circumscribed and the manufacturers of equipment and software that enables circumvention for legitimate purposes will be reluctant to introduce the products into the market," Boucher added.

The lawmakers also would direct the Federal Trade Commission to promulgate a regulation requiring that "copy-protected CDs" be properly labeled.

"The few copy-protected CDs which have been introduced into the U.S. market to date are inadequately labeled and create broad consumer confusion," Boucher said.

"We are not proposing to outlaw the introduction of copy-protected CDs. We, however, want to ensure that if copy-protected CDs are introduced in larger volumes, consumers will know what they are buying," Doolittle added.

Supporters of the Digital Media Consumers Rights Act include Intel, Verizon, Philips Electronics North America Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Gateway, the Consumer Electronics Association, Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Association for Computing Machinery, the Computer Research Association and a variety of trade associations representing technology companies, the American Library Association, the American Association of Universities, the National Humanities Alliance, the Digital Future Coalition, the Consumers Union, the Home Recording Rights Coalition, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, the National Writers Union and other organizations representing the public interest and the consumers of digital media.

DMUSICIANS!


We must support this bill!!! We are composing a letter for you to send to your congressman, too. Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will support it. Unfortunatly I cant send the letter because im not in the US, but I can certinly tell any american visitors to my site to send the letter. Im currently getting approx 175 hits/day. Assumeing just 5% of those are from the US, thats about 260 potential supporters each month

Intresting. Intel, Philips, Sun, the CEA, these wouldn't support anything they didn't think had a good chance of getting passed.

I noticed it said "reintroduced". What happened the last time?

Phillips is one of the better ones, they hate those currupted disks just as much as we do.

It just died when the last session of Congress adjurned.

Just a question to think about: In what news media (newspapers, TV and radio, Internet news organizations) were this important story featured, if at all? Almost any kind of bill like this that gives the average consumer SOME breathing room is pretty much shunted to the proverbial "back page" where only one or two paragraphs are devoted -- if at all. Whereas the more repressive, stacked-deck proposals (i.e. CBDTPA, P2PPPA) favored by the multinational entertainment-media complex are splashed all over the front page, with almost NO opposing viewpoints represented.

I also see that among the supporters of this legislation, Sony is conspicuously absent. I recall when Fred Dannen wrote his book "Hit Men," he predicted that when Sony took over CBS Records, that it would ensure DAT (Digital AudioTape) being smoothed over for acceptance for consumer use. Not only did that never happen, but coupled with its acquisition of Columbia Pictures (and thus, its entré into the "content" field), it has adopted virtually the same kind of greed-fueled, paranoia-guided exclusivism and anti-consumer, anti-technology vendetta as the other "content" conglomerates. In that sense, Mr. Dannen's optimism has proven WAY off the mark.

W-B.. it said in the intro, that this stuff was only introduced at the conference.
I'll sign this, and support it.. whatever it takes. Good to know that California actually has a few more people in it that believe a consumer is more than just someone who buys, it's also someone who votes.

Which leads me to this query: Which major media outlets, if any, covered this conference? It'll be interesting to see . . .

Sony acts weird. Simple. They suffer from an internal divide. One one half is sony consumer electronics, and on the other is sony entertainment. It makes them unpredictable. Sony entertainment usually gets what it wants.

Media bias is a huge problem, but I cant think of anything to do about it. The enemy IS the media, and they specialise in manipulating the truth. Other than obsessivly telling everyone we meet I cant think of any solution. While most of the internet gets some exposure to the truth, in the real world few people have even heard of the DMCA, CDTBPA or the DMCRA. We need publicity, but there is no way to get it.

How about a targeted leaflet campaign, droping leaflets about copyright abuse at disneyworld?

On of my favorite writers and interviewers, Katherine Lewis from Bloomberg, was there, CSpan did coverage of FCC Commisoner Jonathan Adelstein's speech and playing with Lester Chambers. Many newspapers were there, but the primary issue with the media is the same as radio, consolodation. Viacom owns CBS, which owns Excite, AOL Time Warner owns CNN, getting a fair shake for the true issues is difficult at best, damned near impossible at worst. Too many reporters don't take the time to research their stories, they simply rewrite RIAA press releases.

The big issue this year seems to be the cosolodation of radio (Clear Channel). Several senators and Representatives, as well as Jonathan Adelstein, are against it. Even Howard Berman, who I have often accused of being in the indurties pockets, spoke against it.

I'll support it.

Bravo!

I just hope that the sponsors of this bill can out-contribute the RIAA and MPAA so that this can be passed and the DMCA amended. Therein lies the challenge.

There is no way the RIAA/MPAA/every related group will be out-lobbied. The only way this will get passes is if polititions decide they would rather have votes than cash, combined with a whole lot of luck.