Copyright Office Asks For Public Comments On DMCA

krygny writes "A number of news sites (ZDnet, theregister) are reporting that the US Copyright Office is accepting feedback on the affects of the DMCA. While it's unlikley to prompt changes in the law, lucid and valid anectdotes of how fair use of certain materials is infriged upon, may help determine the degree and nature of enforcement."

Comments

Posting comments here won't cut it.

[macdaddy357]

We all enjoy posting comments here, but they won't be read by the copyright office. Carefully craft your words, and write them.

Re:Posting comments here won't cut it.

[El_Nofx]

Ya, and someone should remind us all on the 19th of November when they actually do start letting us comment, most /.ers have a memory like a fruit fly.

write as an adult - respectful comments please

[Anonymous Coward]

Since you are trying to convince the feds to
treat copyright as a limited thing, please write
comments as an adult and be respectful

Vent then bend over

[nightsweat]

While I'm certain some sort of minor repeal of the DMCA will come about, I'm also certain that the partial repeal will take effect about ten minutes before another more restrictive bill called something like "The Save America From Terror Act" will go into effect, putting all the DMCA restrictions plus more new ones in place.

This is just a chance to vent so you can feel like you actually had a hand in the process. The only real hands in the process, of course, belong to the hands with dollar bills in them, headed for political coffers.

Re:Vent then bend over

[badnews_bear]

While I agree with you in that the only people who have their hands in this are the ones with the bills (read: dollar) in their hands, we cannot continue to think that way. The idea that the only people who are making the laws are the ones with the the money or the ones who can give the money to the lawmakers is false logic. It is only that way because we, the people, LET it get that way. I said this before, but I feel that it bears repeating until everyone gets it in their heads. You can make a difference in this. QUIT BUYING MUSIC. See how long the DMCA lasts against a consumer strike on digital goods (read: CD's). And yes, I can bitch because I no longer buy music of any sort (nor do I download it)....

Undermines democracy.

[Trusty Penfold]

You should let your elected representitives represent you in legal & governmental issues. If you have to get involved with every trivial decision that gets made then you will soon lose patience. It will only be the extreme members of society that will influence decision making - and then where will we be?

What good will this really do?

[kcbrown]

I mean, the Copyright Office doesn't enforce anything. That's the job of the executive branch: the FBI, the DOJ, etc. They can, and do, enforce whatever laws they want to enforce, and in any way they want to (depending, of course, on the instructions they receive from their corporate masters).

So how can writing up and sending in your thoughts about the DMCA to the Copyright Office have any more effect on anything related to the DMCA than posting to Slashdot?

It's not like most members of Congress are going to listen to these comments, since they owe their allegience to the corporations and not the people...

the REASON for these submissions...

[forevermore]

... is not to repeal the DMCA, but if you read that first paragraph, they want to see if there are certain TYPES of work that should be exempted from the current broad coverage of the DMCA.

The problem with this is that the items many of us feel should be exempted are exactly the types of things that the DMCA was enacted to "protect" (cd's, dvd's, etc), and it would be very unlikely that the government would do anything to change that in such a "minor" alteration of the act.

what to exempt....

[Alcimedes]

let's see. i want cd's out of there. then movies.

why?

i like to listen to cd's on my computer. sadly enough, my monitor is larger than my TV, so i watch movies on there too.

if it's already illegal to make and sell copies of these cd's and movies anyway, what the hell is the DMCA doing other than stifling research into useful apps. for everyday folks.

if someone is making an illegal copy and selling it, throw them in jail. there have been laws in place to do this for years.

reminds me of people who want to create more restrictive gun laws. problem is no one is enforcing the ones that we already have.

does it make you feel any better that the criminal broke 17 laws to shoot your ass instead of 15 laws?

didn't think so.

same with this. if it's already illegal to mass produce and sell these cd's/movies, what's the DMCA really doing anyway?

Fair use

[roman_mir]

I must be able to buy a movie on a DVD and play this movie on a computer of my choice under operating system of my choice. If I choose to play the movie under some distribution of open source operating system, or any GNU (free software) operating system I must be able to do so. DMCA makes it impossible to legally play my DVD under GNU/Linux for example, since MPAA will not allow a license for DVD player software to be distributed under GNU; DMCA makes it illegal to reverse engineer DVD format.

MPAA DMCA FAQ

Question:

Doesn't the DMCA allow reverse engineering for compatibility, for example to allow playing of a DVD on a Linux operating system-driven personal computer?

Answer:

The DMCA does allow reverse engineering. However, the reverse engineering provisions in the DMCA were never intended to enable anyone to circumvent technical protection measures (TPMs) for the purpose of gaining unauthorized access to or making unauthorized copies of copyrighted works.

The DMCA does allow a lawful user of a computer program to circumvent TPMs to ensure that the program can work with other programs (interoperability); and, with strict limitations, the research may be shared with others, as long as it does not infringe the copyright in the original or a related work. However, reverse engineering is not permissible if there is a readily available commercial alternative for that purpose. In this case, there exist MANY commercially available DVD players.

Re:Really

[Soko]

lucid and valid anectdotes?

From Slashdot?

Which is the point, I think, for the gentle reminder from krygny.

One would hope that any person from Slashdot would think about thier response and make it palletable for the masses, instead of just allowing thier feelings about the DMCA to come to the fore un-abated. Your opinions will be on public display if you choose to respond, so please keep the invective for Slashdot comments, not on a site whose audience won't be so tolerant of trolling. There's no moderators out there, after all.

Soko

Wrong foundation altogether

[jukal]

in my very uneducated opinion, the whole DMCA is based on wrong foundation. IMHO, it is utterly stupid to try and define what exactly, technically you can do to software - or hardware - that you purchased. I mean, if the legislative forces really think this the correct way to fix things, then there should be the "Oil Painting Copyright Act" and "Ceramic Copyright Act". I think I have said this in some other thread as well, but..after 100 years all these legislators will be crying in their graves when they realize that software is no different and that they cannot just do the easy DMCA-kludge fix to serve needs of specific companies.

My $.015

[Saint Mitchell]

Do you like your Compaq computer?

If the DMCA had existed back in the day Compaq wouldn't have been legally allowed to reverse engineer the IBM bios and make PCs as common as they are today. A whole insdustry sprang from something now no longer possible. Many of the asian countries don't give two shits about your IP. They will reverse engineer it and make it better/cheper/faster. Why? Because they can. All the DMCA does is screw the small guy with the dream.

Suggestions on what to do

[Anonymous Coward]

If you feel strongly and want your voice to count, consider doing the following:

1. Plan on spending some time (~1-2 hour(s)).

2. Get remedial edication on DCMA
http://anti-dmca.org/
http://www.educause.edu/issues/dmca.html
and many other sites.

3. First (today/tomorrow), write to your Congressperson AND Senators on the wider view of why DMCA is a "bad thing" for society. Give some simple examples. Use your own words - no form letters, please. Write your message both in a text file so it can be pasted in an e-mail and a web-form (the method of communication varies between different legistative members).

http://www.senate.gov/
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Select the senators/congresspersons you want to write to and send them e-mail or fill out the web form.

4. Be reasonable, respectful and all that - basic human relations stuff (and spell check!). Include your contact information.

5. Mark your calendar for Nov 19 (OR the week of Thanksgiving - what a good thing to do after you are stuffed with leftover turkey and resting the next day when most people are shopping) to write a *separate letter* to the Copyright office. Deal only with the narrow context of their request on interpretation and exceptions (but the irst letter to the congress-folks should deal with DMCA in the wider context).

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/fr2002-4.pdf for the context.

6. Write a short note to the same congress-folks you wrote before and CC them the letter to the Copyright office, emphasizing that the problem is with the DMCA itself, not the narrow copyright only context.

You may tell them it is more preferable to legistate human behavior rather than specific technologies.

Yes, it is work to paricipate in decision making. If we aren't willing to find some time to make the right input to the right people at the right time, we can't make a difference.

--
Rathinam