Subject: COPYRIGHT: Rep. Boucher Statement: "Pay-Per-Use Society One Step Closer"
NINCH-ANNOUNCE (david@ninch.org)
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:34:20 -0400
Message-Id: <v0421011cb61f4ed05e84@[192.100.21.22]> Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:34:20 -0400 To: ninch-announce@cni.org From: NINCH-ANNOUNCE <david@ninch.org> Subject: COPYRIGHT: Rep. Boucher Statement: "Pay-Per-Use Society One Step Closer"
NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
from across the Community
October 27, 2000
"PAY-PER-USE" SOCIETY ONE STEP CLOSER
Statement of Congressman Rick Boucher on "Anti-circumvention" Rulemaking
>Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 10:22:15 -0400
>From: "Ruth Rodgers" <RRodgers@hrrc.org>
>To: Digital Future Coalition Discussion List <dfclist@ala.org>
>Subject: [DFCLIST:28] Rep. Boucher's statement on 1201
>
>Thought you all might be interested in seeing this.
News from Congressman Rick Boucher
2329 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2000
CONTACT:Sharon Ringley (202) 225-3861
Statement of Congressman Rick Boucher
"PAY-PER-USE" SOCIETY ONE STEP CLOSER
I regret the decision of the Librarian of Congress, acting upon the
recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, to reject the
recommendations of the Administration, concerned Members of Congress,
universities and libraries in announcing a decision that does not
protect traditional fair use rights. This disappointing decision has
moved our Nation one step closer to a "pay-per-use" society that
threatens to advance the narrow interests of copyright owners over
the broader public interest of information consumers.
In crafting section 1201(a)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, Congress sought to preserve the principle of "fair use" that has
served our Nation so well for more than a century. Unfortunately,
based on the advice of the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of
Congress today announced his decision to limit the ability of
ordinary consumers in most cases to circumvent electronic security
measures for the purpose of exercising their non-infringing fair use
rights. Consequently, any person who circumvents a technological
protection measure to gain access to information to which he has a
fair use right will be guilty of a crime.
I was heartened recently when the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce,
speaking for the Administration, so forcefully articulated the
importance of preserving fair use principles in the 21st century.
NTIA made useful recommendations to the Register of Copyrights for
implementing section 1201(a)(1) in a manner which would have
protected fair use rights. For a moment, it appeared that the
rulemaking might advance the interests of information consumers.
Those hopes have now been dashed.
As NTIA recognized in its letter, one of the foremost concerns
reflected in the Congressional report upon passage of the DMCA was
that changes in the law could chill the exercise of consumers'
traditional "fair use" rights, and move us all toward a "pay-per-use"
society. Congress recognized that some limits had to be placed on the
anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA to ensure that librarians,
educators, the scientific community, and other information consumers
could continue to gain legitimate access to a variety of works likely
to be protected through the use of technological measures. Section
1201(a)(1) was, therefore, included to exempt from the prohibition on
circumvention "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 ..." The
Librarian was charged by the statute with defining the classes of
works likely to be at risk.
Under this grant of authority, it should have been possible to
exempt, for example, copies of works purchased by universities and
libraries when their students or patrons subsequently seek to make
non-infringing fair use of those works. Unfortunately, the announced
exceptions to the rule are so narrow as to be practically
meaningless. Fair use is not protected.
There is little doubt that the 107th Congress will consider proposed
revisions to the DMCA. Given the importance of fair use to society as
a whole, my hope is that Congress will re-calibrate the DMCA to
balance more evenly the interests of copyright owners and information
consumers. With today's failure of the Library of Congress to
protect the public's fair use rights, Congress in its next session
should act to prevent the creation of a "pay per use" society, in
which what is available today on the library shelf for free is
available in the future only upon payment of a fee for each use.
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