Protect Your Fair-Use Rights

jrguthrie writes "There is a great site for helping two bills through the legislative process, protectfairuse.org. The site makes it simple to E-Mail and/or snail-mail your Representatives and Senators. The bills are designed to close the gaping holes in the DMCA that allow the RIAA and MPAA to use the DMCA as a government bail-out. Please check it out and post your thoughts."

Comments

Re:Not fair use

[Dachannien]

What a lot of slashdotters want to defend is not just the explicitly-outlined concept of "fair use", but the Supreme Court-outlined concept of time-shifting and space-shifting for private use which also falls under the "fair use" provision.

I'd also like to point out the following quote (Majority opinion in Sony Corp. of Am. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)):

"The Court of Appeals' holding that respondents are entitled to enjoin the distribution of VTR's, to collect royalties on the sale of such equipment, or to obtain other relief, if affirmed, would enlarge the scope of respondents' statutory monopolies to encompass control over an article of commerce that is not the subject of copyright protection. Such an expansion of the copyright privilege is beyond the limits of the grants authorized by Congress."

It appears to me that the DMCA goes against already-established legal precedent in terms of Constitutional interpretation. It's a shame that we even need new legislation to protect these rights, but it's going to have to be grassroots efforts like this which end up making things change for the better.

(Insert standard IANAL disclaimer here)

Damn the "Fair Uses"

[DarkVein]

Fair use is soemthing else. The DMCA enshrines digital media that abolishes all unregulated use. The MPAA/RIAA want to do this because the technology allows it. What they want to do is impossible to do with traditional media.

The entire picture is distorted by the prevalence of this "us vs them" battle. These laws dictate proper use of any creative work. The DMCA itself dictates the proper use of any digital distribution, creative or not. The RIAA/MPAA make up a very, very, small portion of the subject being regulated.

Lessig's presentation. (mirror)

On the "Us Vs Them" front, the RIAA/MPAA want to monopolize the American source of Culture. This is a very lucrative proposition. The RIAA/MPAA demonstrate a flagrant irresponsibility as steward of the culture they currently control, and they want to own more. They do this by bleeding off the Unregulated areas of Copyright. The goal is to abolish The Commons, so that you must buy your heritage from Universal Music Group, et al.