Subject: COPYRIGHT: DFC calls for re-calibration of DMCA in light of 1201 rulemaking
NINCH-ANNOUNCE (david@ninch.org)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:30:33 -0400
Message-Id: <v0421011ab61f492b0af8@[192.100.21.22]> Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:30:33 -0400 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org> Subject: COPYRIGHT: DFC calls for re-calibration of DMCA in light of 1201 rulemaking
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
October 27, 2000
Digital Future Coalition Calls for recalibration of DMCA
in light of new rulemaking
The Digital Future Coalition released the following statement
yesterday on the recent rulemaking by the Librarian of Congress on
the anti-circumvention provision (section 1201) of the Digital
Millemium Copyright Act (DMCA).
You will note that the DFC credits the Librarian of Congress for
being aware of the "potential damage to scholarship" in this
rulemaking during the 3 years before the next rulemaking and that it
"places considerable burdens on the scholarly, academic, and library
communities." He has therefore called for a review of this time frame
as well as of the appropriate criteria for assessing the harm that
could be done to American creativity by the anti-circumvention
provision.
Speaking for the DFC, Professor Peter Jaszi expressed the hope that
"Congress now recognizes that it may have gone too far in drafting
the DMCA to accommodate the interests of copyright owners without
including adequate safeguards to protect the legitimate interests of
information consumers. As it considers amendments to the DMCA next
year, we trust the 107th Congress will seek to recalibrate the DMCA
to bring it more in keeping with the grand tradition of balance that
has served our nation so well for the past two centuries."
Following this, I am forwarding a statement by Representative Rick
Boucher, circulated by DFC.
David Green
============
>Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 10:41:44 -0400
>From: "Ruth Rodgers" <RRodgers@hrrc.org>
>To: Digital Future Coalition Discussion List <dfclist@ala.org>
>Subject: [DFCLIST:29] DFC news release on 1201
>Contact:
>Ruth Rodgers
>202-628-9210
COPYRIGHT OWNERS GET GREEN LIGHT TO ROLL WITH TECHNOLOGICAL
PROTECTION MEASURES AT CONSUMER EXPENSE
October 26--Washington, D.C. Today, the Digital Future Coalition
(DFC) expressed its appreciation to the Librarian of Congress for
seeking to preserve the fair use rights of information consumers,
while expressing its deep disappointment that content owners
effectively had been given a green light to use technological
protection measures to lock up access to copyrighted works.
"Once again, content owners have successfully promoted their own
narrow financial interests over the broader public interest in
preserving consumer access to literary, scientific, and other works,"
said Professor Peter Jaszi of the DFC. He continued: "As the
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information
outlined so eloquently on behalf of the Administration in a recent
letter to the Register of Copyrights, preserving the principle of
fair use in the information age would encourage a renaissance of
research, academic, and educational freedom, just as it promoted the
progress of science and the useful arts throughout the analog era. In
our view, something profound is lost when fair use is diminished.
Today, consumers find themselves one step closer to the pay-per-use
society envisioned by copyright owners."
Noting that "potential damage to scholarship may well ensue in the
course of a three-year period," before the next scheduled rulemaking,
and that "the statute places considerable burdens on the scholarly,
academic, and library communities," the Librarian of Congress himself
today announced his intent to request Congressional review of the
time frame of the rulemaking, the appropriate criteria for assessing
the harm that could be done to American creativity by the
anti-circumvention provision, and called for more clarity concerning
the definition of "class of works."
The DFC recognized that the Register and her staff had labored under
difficult circumstances in attempting to implement section 1201(a)(1)
of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in a manner consistent
with Congressional intent. However, the organization also noted that
in enacting the DMCA, Congress had expressed strong concern for the
preservation of the fair use doctrine and other traditional copyright
doctrines that promote public access to information. The DFC
expressed regret that the Copyright Office had failed to capture the
spirit of this legislation in interpreting it for the Librarian.
Section 1201(a)(1) was drafted to allow exemptions from the
prohibition on circumvention of technological protection measures for
"persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular
class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be . . .
adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to
make non-infringing uses of that particular class of works . . .." It
should have been possible to exempt, for example, copies of works
that universities and libraries purchase when their students or
patrons subsequently seek to make non-infringing uses of those works.
Unfortunately, today's decision took 70 pages to essentially say that
few persons may ever circumvent a technological protection measure -
even to gain access to a work solely for legitimate noncommercial
purposes.
In concluding, Professor Jaszi said: "We hope Congress now recognizes
that it may have gone too far in drafting the DMCA to accommodate the
interests of copyright owners without including adequate safeguards
to protect the legitimate interests of information consumers. As it
considers amendments to the DMCA next year, we trust the 107th
Congress will seek to recalibrate the DMCA to bring it more in
keeping with the grand tradition of balance that has served our
nation so well for the past two centuries."
Founded in 1995, the Digital Future Coalition consists of forty-two
national organizations representing a wide range of non-profit and
for-profit entities. Its membership represents educators, computer
and telecommunications industry businesses, librarians, archivists,
authors, and scientists. DFC is committed to striking an appropriate
balance in law and public policy between protecting intellectual
property and affording public access to it.
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