The Digital Millenium Copyrights Act is perhaps one of the most hated pieces of legislation in existance. However, a bill is currently being considered that could tone down (or even negate) certain parts of the DMCA. Called the 'Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act of 2003', it was introduced by Representative Rick Boucher's (D-Va), and now has the support of 24 other representatives.
With support inside government, the bill also has extra-governmental support, with the bill being pushed by The Personal Technology Freedom Coalition. Members of this group include Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth. It also gains the support of the EFF and the ALA, two major privacy and consumer rights groups. With such heavy weights backing the bill, one hopes it has a high chance of sucess.
Below is a snip from the bill's summary; it gives a good idea as to why people are excited with the bill.
"Amends Federal copyright law to exempt from its prohibitions against circumvention of copyright protection systems any persons acting solely in furtherance of scientific research into technological protection measures. Declares it is not a violation of copyright law, but fair use, to: (1) circumvent a technological measure in connection with access to, or the use of, a work if such circumvention does not result in an infringement of the copyright in the work; or (2) manufacture, distribute, or make noninfringing use of a hardware or software product capable of enabling significant noninfringing use of a copyrighted work."
We'll follow this bill with much interest.
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