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TEACH vs. DMCA Showdown Looming
TVmisGuided writes "A copyright showdown between the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and the Teach (Technology Education and Copyright Harmonization) Act is brewing that will have serious implications on the future of higher education on-line. The article
from Chronicle.com spells out the upcoming brouhaha. IMO, this will be one of the strongest litmus tests of the DMCA since it was signed into law in the U.S."
A group representing college media centers is warning the
U.S. Copyright Office about a possible conflict between two federal
laws, one meant to limit electronic access to copyrighted material and
the other designed to broaden access to the same material for online
education.
At issue are the Technology Education and Copyright
Harmonization Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The first
measure is known as the Teach Act and was signed into law in November.
It amended copyright law to allow college instructors to use
nondramatic works, such as news articles and novels, and portions of
dramatic works, such as movies, in online courses without paying fees
and without seeking the copyright holder's permission.
The second law, which took effect in 1998, has a section that
makes it illegal to bypass technologies that block access to
copyrighted material. In a letter sent last month to the Copyright
Office, the Consortium of College and University Media Centers says it
wants clarification of that section of the digital-copyright law, known
as the anti-circumvention provision.
What worries the media centers is that colleges might not be
allowed to bypass copying protections even when they need to do so to
use materials from CDs and DVDs for distance education, as permitted by
the Teach Act in certain circumstances. The problem arises when digital
materials are not also released in non-digital formats that the
colleges can fall back on, such as print.
The group represents 312 college media centers, many of which are responsible for helping faculty members create online courses.
The group's letter was among dozens sent to the copyright
office. It is considering exceptions to the anti-circumvention
provision, as it is legally required to do every three years.
Noting that colleges have barely begun to apply the provisions ...
of the Teach Act, the group says that given the law's "great promise
and its expected wholesale adoption by nonprofit higher education
we cannot wait another three years to deal with the impact of this
conflict after the fact."
Jeff Clark, the chairman of the college media group's
government regulations and public-policy committee, wrote the letter.
He says he knows of no specific cases in which colleges have felt
constrained from taking advantage of the Teach Act because of the
anti-circumvention provision.
"It was more a proactive measure," he says.
Allan R. Adler, vice president for legal and governmental
affairs for the Association of American Publishers, which helped draft
the Teach Act, says the kind of conflict that Mr. Clark's letter
describes would be "very rare." Publishers of books and journals almost
always have analog versions of digital material. Those that do not
often market digital material specifically for educational purposes, he
says.
Later this year, the Copyright Office is expected to reveal
its opinions on the comments it has received during hearings on the
issue.
How many "one of the strongest test" will we need to go against DMCA ?
The hearing is copyrighted so if you accidently hear it, your ears will have to be removed as it is away to circumvent non-hearing.
ALMOST FIRST POST!!
Hee hee.. couldn't resist.
Seriously, I can't wait to see the DMCA go down. It's scared far too many people with mega-corportations sending out their FUD letters
We've known for a while that the DMCA collides with other laws and rights for a while, most notably fair use. So my question is what makes this any more of a legal victory other than the Copyright Office making an oppinion on this particular issue? How can this collision be any stronger than other colliding laws?
The current tally is at $75 billion, and only the most naive believe this will be all.
This is a little silly, I think. They just submitted comments that the laws "may, in certain situations" collide. This hasn't occurred yet, therefore there isn't any "bruhaha" court battle or anything silly like that... so how is this some major battle to reshape the DMCA?
Run. I like water. Push My rutabaga.
I hope it goes down in a big flaming ball of greasy smoke. With no survivors.
The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act This site gives a bit more background into why it was considered necessary, as well as examples of how it is to be implemented.
Even if this throws out the DMCA, RIAA and the MPAA will just try again with another law to ensure that you are only listening/watching things THEY signed, and making sure you pay WAY to much for them. As long as they have $$ there will be plenty of copyright laws.
McD
People who are against human cloning must be bitter they are not good enough to be cloned.
Young man, ....
Don't you pirate those warez,
I said Young man,
The industry cares,
It's funt to comply with...
THE D-M-C-A!
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Since we all know what the DMCA is, would be to have a link or two to the TEACH act for those of us who dont know what its about
The house...
www.ala.org/washoff/teach.html
Couldnt find a good senate one... but thats a start
moo.
That I won't be able to double my earnings with a college degree? Since we all know that Professionals with degrees can earn up to $2.2 million more? Oh well, at least I'll still be able to enlarge my penis, earn large amounts of cash for doing nothing, meet sexy singles in my area, lost 50 pounds in 2 days...
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Is EVERY Slashdot story about the DMCA required to have this line at the end now?
I have often taken a scene out of a rented movie for educational purposes. Re-encoded that scene into divx movie clips of interest. And used them as source materials for topics of discussion. Used the matrix "battery" scene in philosophy for several reasons. Used the "Strange Days" reply scenes in censorship/reality conversations. Technically I am circumventing copyright protection, re-encoding, and electronically distributing these clips. I see that it is no different than when I used to watch the clip in class with borrowed VCR's and a rental tape. Except now the Research questions and materials I ask can be for homework.
The end results are the same. Law, or no law, it's not going to stop this educator.
Many educators I know (Elementary school teachers, so take that into account) honestly beleive they are completely immune from copyright law because they are educators.
I routinely hear of a teacher buying or borrowing a book and then copying that book in its entirety on a xerox machine, and then distributing copies to students or other teachers. When asked about it, the response is invariably the same. "Oh, it's okay. I'm a teacher."
Personally, I think this is the way it *should* be, even if this practice falls well outside fair use. As a matter of fact, this same mentality will help this situation come about. After all, if enough people believe it's okay, general consensus will eventually trump legislation.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
TEACH Act, huh? Convenient that it has to do with education...
Who's with me that the acronym for something should be the letters(whatever they happen to be) for the thing's real name, instead of someone thinking of a clever word they want to have as their acronym and massaging the things name to have those letters?
I think at this time it is important to understand that the real problem isn't the DMCA, but copyright monopolies. The DMCA (and also infinite extensions) are just a consequence of trying to impose copyrights in the information age. If you don't cut the vine off at the root, it will just keep growing back to choke us off in other ways.
It's more like a donnybrook.
Lessee....
Pro-market Administration: Check.
Mostly conservative Supreme Court: Check.
Decreased interest in public works by the public: Check.
Right wing propaganda machine: Check
Bookoo gajillions of greenbacks going into politicians pockets in favor of DMCA: Check.
Yeesh, what a hackneyed misuse of an already overworked phrase. A litmus test, in common parlance, is some issue used to put something into one category or another, just like a real litmus test determines whether a substance has acid or base ph. One example would be a Supreme Court nominee's opinion on abortion used as a determiner as to whether they are conservative or liberal. You could call this a stress test, I suppose, but hardly a litmus test.
Sorry to get picky, but sometimes sloppy diction gets my hackles up...
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
When drafting legislation it's critical that the drafters are forward-looking so the legislation can adapt to conditions not net concieved by the drafters, and acomodate situations of the sort Mr. Clark describes. Certainly the situation hasn't yet occurred, but then again classes are still primarily tought using print media. There are vary few classes for which the purchase of a text book is not required. Consider for a moment, a situation where the materials for a course are distributed as an ISO image of a DVD-ROM containing all the published works to be utilized in the class (an englsih class for example). Consider that one of the works is a clip from a movie adaptation of one of those publsihed works. The TEACH Act clearly states that a license is not required for usage for academic purposes, yet it is illegal to distribute, aquire or use the circumvention tools needed for implementation of the fair use exceptions spelled out in the TEACH act.
Organizations such as the MPAA have the stated position that copyright should be absolute in nature, indefinate in durration and that fair use does not exist. Clearly, the TEACH act is in direct conflict with this position, but instead of stepping up to work within the law, the Motion Picture Association of America chooses to bend the law, then have it re-written to accomodate it's whims.
Clearly, by implication of the TEACH Act, circumvention tools are in fact not only legal to develop, distribute and use, but encouraged. This is good news for all who wish to see the creative works of the past preserves in accessible forms for future generations.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
I beleive that TEACH is inherently flawed, in that it really doesn't give any incentives to the original creators of the copyrighted materials. Afterall, why should a teacher be allowed to copy a scene from a movie and I can't. HOWEVER, I feel that the DMCA is lawful rape of the consumer, and I personally support any peice of legislation that weekens it. After all, it assumes that all people are criminals until proven otherwise. I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE A BACKUP, since your shity cds will inevitabley SCRATCH!
YOU SUCK BALLS!
After the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, I doubt 7 of 9 will be striking this down. Argh!
All hope left is for them to step down and be replaced.
Or that the law makers come to their senses.
Or that the rest of the World replace the Berne Convention.
Argh!
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
derp!
Noone in hollywood makes any obvious immediate money off that, so that is not how it should be.
How it should be is that noone can copy anything unless in so doing they contribute money to someone rich in hollywood.
This is not a moral "should", it is a realistic "should". This is how those with money, lobbies, and bought legislators want the country to work, so therefore, this is how it should work.
There is a problem with this. The DMCA is just a symptom of trying to impose copyrights in the information age. If we don't get to the source of the problem, copyrights, we will forever be providing a revenue stream to those determined to impose controll over all information we use.
Bear in mind.. the DMCA was passed, not as an enforcement tool for the RIAA and MPAA, but as protection for virtually all vendors of copyrighted material
You're kidding, right? You're not that naive, are you? The DMCA benefits NOBODY but the **AA. All it does is criminalize the digitization of media currently produced, which means that companies represented by **AA don't have to modify their business plans.
The DMCA was passed to put the US in compliance with the WIPO treaties. These treaties were created expressly to combat the use of digital technologies that threaten current big business.
Please provide me with an example (either real or theoretical) where anyone else needs or could use the DMCA instead of the remaining existing copyright law.
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
Well, as long as the MITOpenCourseWare is unaffected I'm fairly happy. This is a use of the internet that I applaud loudly.
Copying brief excerpts of material for educational use should be okay, but copying entire works should not be. If it were, there'd be no incentive to create educational works (i.e. those primarily or only intented to be used by educators, like textbooks), since nobody would pay for them.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Does this mean that I won't be able to double my earnings with a college degree? Turns out my earnings doubled as soon as I graduated from university.
Since we all know that Professionals with degrees can earn up to $2.2 million more? Hey, as long as I work for another 3 decades that statement will be absolutely correct.
Oh well, at least I'll still be able to enlarge my penis... This works too... my penis enlarges every time I read spam with pictures of Hot XXX Babes!!!
earn large amounts of cash for doing nothing Get this... it seems my company pays me even for the time I spend reading spam... in other words, doing nothing at all! Suckers!
meet sexy singles in my area... Hey, spam helps me meet sexy singles all the time. Trouble is they keep asking for my credit card info.
lost 50 pounds in 2 days... Yeah, I did that too. Turns out that the 50GPB British money order I sent to that nice Nigerian fellow got lost or something.
That's 6 for 6. You see, Spam never lies. And just to keep this on topic, neither does the Copyright Office.
And I hope the DMCA wins every battle. Only when people realize how absurd the law is will the force to repeal it be strong enough. It's like civil liberties. If Ashcroft tried to take them all away at once the opposition would be too strong, but if he does it slower then people won't notice it as strongly. If the DMCA slowly defeats logic it could win, but if it is absurdly clear how illogical it is then perhaps it can be repealed.
Of course, this is the philosophy Ralph Nader used in the 2000 election, so I could be wrong...
Problem is, there's nobody legally allowed to supply them.
The impending TEaCH/DMCA clash is looking like a different version of the same problem.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
So they already got the Teachers! I hope the DMCA Cops go after the Librarians next. Those copyright-flouting socialistic liberal peaceniks have it coming, indisriminately sharing out media to people and not charging! Haven't they read Ayn Rand? Don't they know that's against The Free Market? Shame on them! Shame on them!
Da Blog
have every Slashdotter buy a can of Spam, take it to MPAA headquarters, and put it in their sewer system. Thus, the MPAA would be forced to wade in their own feces (instead of mailing them to Capital Hill in the form of legal letters). Anyways, just keep their sewer drain jammed until they agree to lobby for the repeal of the DMCA :P
What you see and hear is prolefeed designed to make you forget the first amendment, what it means and why copyright exists to begin with. That the debate has sunk to how much freedom a privelidged class, teachers, will have is a good indication of where things really stand. Teachers will be given a few vestiges of our free press and speech rights so that they will help indoctrinate the next generation of information slaves. "Fair use" is a fairy tale designed to make you feel at ease with 100 year and soon perpetual copyrights and an absolute prohibition on information sharing of any kind.
The only hope for not decending into this most unAmerican state is for you and I to continue pressing home the big picture and for our leaders to actually lead. Any elected official who dares to stand against the DMCA will be viciously attacked by the media.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
If anyone is interested, several classes are currently being taught on Kazaa.
Personally, I think this is the way it *should* be, even if this practice falls well outside fair use
What you are feeling is an echo of the original copyright laws of the United States, which only lasted for 14 years with the possibility of extention if the author were alive. You feel as if though you should be able to copy older works, which compose the vast majority of printed material, and practially all of the material presented in an educational setting. The real world is a much grimmer place where laws and technology being used to restrict publishing rather than encourage it. Books are kept locked up in vast shelving complexes known as libraries where they can only be enjoyed by a few people at a time. Those books will be kept there until they rot, and a large proportion are already beyond revovery.
Something within you knows that the world is not as it seems or should be. It's hard to imagine a world where you could simply purchase a press and make coppies of most books, yet that's the way it used to be. You could use the latest technology available or you could simply read them aloud to your friends. The lower costs of publishing should have pushed copyright shorter not longer as the publishers have fewer expenses to recoup. You know that things are not really like this and you are beginning to susupect the truth.
Please don't buy into the lie that everything will be OK if we create a special class of people with fewer restrictions. Everyone should have the right to share information that's how culture is promoted and improved. Educators can only provide a foundation. Real culture comes from all of us and does not end with school. Restricting publications will only dumb us all down and inevitably, our educators will need fewer privileges.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
A teacher should be allowed to copy a scene because they are TEACHING, you twit. Not consuming for personal use.
Given all the efforts to interface technology with your brain, I'm wondering how long it will be before the DMCA is applicable to all of your thought processes.
That would be the ultimate goal of the RIAA. Or any oppressive government. Hmmm - is it possible to distinguish between the two at that level?
I think the media corporations, should be legally bound to replace ALL damaged media. (Proof of purchase and remnants off damaged media) I mean after all according to them, "consumers have purchased the right to view the product, not the media the product is on". I also think there should be a time threshold of the replacement time, say two weeks. If they do not have a replacement in your hands (not postal date) or they are fined 1 million dollars (per incident) for every day over the threshold. Since "we do not own the media" there should be no limit on the replacement rate (breaking and replacing 5 cd/dvd a week), and replacement numbers. This is where the laws they are buying/passing are leading to. This would level out the playing field, only with the CURRENT laws. Also, the media corporation should be totally responsible for all shipping charges incurred for the replacement.
Media corporations do like this. Well tough luck. The alternative is FAIR USE, and backups. Make your decision. We would not have to do this if we can make backups.
I can go on, but I will stop.
Got bit, now it is going to start to sting a little. Blow on it, it will make it feel better....
how will we separate the people who know from the people who THINK they know?
I use this all the time in testing the technical limits of clients, prospective co-workers, and random techie people. You start a casual conversation about some absurbly technical topic, and wait for the buzzwords/jargon to come out--then you tease them into a potential mis-step, and see whether they fall in it.
People who honestly don't know what you're talking about won't feel pressured into lying to cover it up (unless there's a LARGE ego at stake). But the poor schmuck who doesn't even realize his own cluelessness won't, and will expose himself for the tool that he is.
It's pretty obvious that Timothy hasn't got a fucking clue about the US legal system--this is a convenient "litmus test".
As far as I know, the only way for a federal law to be illegal is for it to be unconstitutional. There doesn't seem to be any constitutional challenge here.
Suppose that it is proven in court that the DMCA and TEACH do collide. So what? The result would be a ruling on what happens where the DMCA's restrictions intersect TEACH's liberalizations. The best we could hope for is a clarification stating that copy-protection circumvention is explicitly allowed for instructional use, which seems to be TEACH's intent. Even the best-case ruling wouldn't invalidate the DMCA.
Most rape victims consume ice cream. Therefore, if you do not eat ice cream you will be less likely to get raped.
Most copyright violations occur after circumventing protections. Therefore, if you criminalize circumvention you will get less copyright violations.
(Boolean) Logical Fallacies:
Denial of the antecedent
This fallacy is an argument of the form "A implies B, A is false, therefore B is false". The truth table for implication makes it clear why this is a fallacy.
Sung to Pink Floyd, The Wall
Another Brick In The Law
We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
TEACHA, leave those kids alone.
Hey, TEACHA, leave those kids alone!
All in all it's just another brick in the law.
All in all you're just another brick in the law.
We don't need no education.
We don't need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom.
TEACHA, leave those kids alone.
Hey, Teacher, leave those kids alone!
All in all you're just another brick in the law.
All in all you're just another brick in the law.
Well we were able to found the International Criminal Court without much backing from the U.S.
The Berne Convention has clauses that allow parties to denounce (withdraw) from it. They could start up a new collective copyright protection scheme that didn't involve the U.S.A. May be a bit of a pipe dream.
But does anybody know if the present Berne Convention makes it possible to drop works that are still protected in the U.S. into the public domain in other countries.?
(E.g. are works published in signatory state A just granted equal time of protection in state B as works published in state B, or are the works protected as long as in state A? Or in simpler terms: Will Steamboat Willie be freely distributable in Europe?)
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Anyway, "litmus test" versus "stress test". These are both metaphors. To someone with a scientific or engineering background, "stress test" might seem a better metaphor. Personally, I don't agree. But that's all beside the point.
No metaphor is perfect -- if it were, it wouldn't be a metaphor. So there's always going to be some sloppiness. The degree of sloppiness matters, but not as much as the usefulness of the metaphor in communicating ideas. By that measure, "litmus test" wins, because anybody who owns a fish tank or a swimming pool knows about litmus tests. Stress tests are something relatively few people do.
Bottom line: language is for communication: your choice of words should be motivated by a desire to get your idea across, not by some abstract notion of "correctness".
If Warner brothers says we have to give them blow jobs to exercise "fair use", then ignoring them is just denying them their well-deserved oral necessity.
You are a consumer, not a citizen, and you seem to enjoy it.
I think breaking the DMCA, in a number of forms (other than fair use) is theivery.
But almost any "DMCA violation" that has shown up on Slashdot is a fair use[1] issue; otherwise, Slashdot's house style would consider it a "copyright violation" rather than a "DMCA violation".
[1] Fair use taken in the more general sense of any use of a copyrighted work that, notwithstanding 17 USC chapter 12, does not require permission of the copyright owner, especially those uses listed in 17 USC sections 107 to 122.
Civil Disobediance, (and this is IMHO only) is when you are doing it to make a point
Would this count?
Will I retire or break 10K?
Most right wingers [...] are not in favor of chilling or ending free speach [sic].
Then who was in favor of the USAPATRIOT act?
Will I retire or break 10K?
If you _really_ want to change things, get the word out to Joe Sixpack who only reads CNN
If CNN and CNN Headline News are Joe Sixpack's sole source of information, then getting people not to buy Warner products will be an impossible task. CNN is owned by the same parent company as Warner Bros.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Stress tests are something relatively few people do.
"Relatively few"? Please. Have you seen how American drivers on the roads treat their cars nowadays?
Will I retire or break 10K?