Boucher Introduces New Bill

brandido writes "The Register is reporting that Rep. Rick Boucher unveiled his attempt at returning some rights to consumers. According to the Register: "As we reported yesterday, some of the biggest names in IT names were on hand to support a legislation from Rep. Rick Boucher unveiled this morning. Boucher vowed to strike out the repressive portions of the DMCA, and 'directs the Federal Trade Commission to undertake a rulemaking to assure adequate notice to the public of any lack of functionality which may attend the purchase of copy protected CDs.'" Details of the bill can be found in PDF format , as can a summary and Boucher's Statement (taken from The Reg story)." Oddly, this bill focuses on notification that you're buying copy-restricted music disks instead of CDs (which is useful, but hardly major), and only contains a few vague amendments to the DMCA itself. Neither of these is worth paying much attention to: Congress is about to wrap up and go home for the year, and will start afresh in January with a clean slate. Perhaps in January some bright Congressperson will introduce a bill which actually takes strong steps toward repealing the DMCA.

Comments

Interview with Congressman Boucher

[Dotnaught]

Here's an interview with Congressman Rick Boucher, for those who can't get enough of him.

This bill is dead.

[Bartab]

It was born dead, the entire timeframe of its submission was planned for its death.

Historically, any bill that is still on the floor when Congress leaves for the winter never gets brought up again. Boucher is doing this in an attempt to gain some votes. The really sad aspect is that the joke bill doesn't even have any teeth. The least he could have done was submit a joke bill that would do something.

Be nice to Boucher

[Bruce Perens]

Boucher is one of very few people on the hill who will give us the time of day. We need him. He's been talking about this bill for some time, and has run into resistance - no surprise - but we want it introduced again. He also plans more than one bill, and the next one will have more of what you want.

Thanks

Bruce

Re:Be nice to Boucher - or not

[Bruce Perens]

Well, one of the issues that may have delayed the bill is a wait for certain corporate sponsors to jump on. A few very large corporations that vend Linux systems were asked, and apparently declined. I happen to have been in the room when Boucher asked them to sign on, and I guess they either didn't reply positively, or just didn't reply.

Bruce

Maybe this will help Lik Sang vs MSFT

[joeflies]

Here is the article which I submitted but was rejected. Sacramento Bee Article I wonder if it would have helped Lik Sang (which provided hardware to use circumvented copy protection), as opposed to personal use copying devices (which the bill focuses on)

Speaking of DRM

[sconeu]

I know it's not really on topic, but on the subject of DRM, MS has changed the root access licence (at least for the WMP 6.4 security upgrade). Here's the new text:

* Digital Rights Management. Content providers are using the digital rights management technology contained in the applicable OS Product ("DRM") to protect the integrity of their content ("Secure Content") so that their intellectual property, including copyright, in such content is not misappropriated. Portions of the applicable OS Product and third party applications such as media players use DRM to play Secure Content ("DRM Software"). If the DRM Software's security has been compromised, owners of Secure Content ("Secure Content Owners") may request that Microsoft revoke the DRM Software's right to copy, display and/or play Secure Content. Revocation does not alter the DRM Software's ability to play unprotected content. A list of revoked DRM Software is sent to your computer whenever you download a license for Secure Content from the Internet. YOU THEREFORE AGREE THAT MICROSOFT MAY, IN CONJUNCTION WITH SUCH LICENSE, ALSO DOWNLOAD REVOCATION LISTS ONTO YOUR COMPUTER ON BEHALF OF SECURE CONTENT OWNERS. Microsoft will not retrieve any personally identifiable information, or any other information, from your computer by downloading such revocation lists. Secure Content Owners may also require you to upgrade some of the DRM components in the applicable OS Product ("DRM Upgrades") before accessing their content. When you attempt to play such content, Microsoft DRM Software will notify you that a DRM Upgrade is required and then ask for your consent before the DRM Upgrade is downloaded. Third party DRM Software may do the same. If you decline the upgrade, you will not be able to access content that requires the DRM Upgrade; however, you will still be able to access unprotected content and Secure Content that does not require the upgrade.

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