Is The Eldred Decision Bad For The DMCA?

clonebarkins writes "Law.com is running an article by Evan P. Schultz suggesting that the Eldred decision (/. story) could mean bad news for our favorite four-letter law: the DMCA."

Comments

Quantity versus Quality

[MrWa]

So, we have two apparently seperate but coordinated efforts to on one hand extend copyright protection (Bono vs. Eldred) and on the other prevent fair use of said copyrighted material (DMCA). The Supreme Court has deemed it a-ok for Congress to perpetually, if it wishes, extend copyright protection for all of eternity; preventing fairuse, on the other hand, may be something that SCOTUS would not allow. May.

Now, will someone please use something that would be banned by the DMCA for a legitimate, meaningful, publicly supported task and dare someone to sue under the DMCA. Make a teaching DVD for kids that shows how wonderful the Supreme Court is using copyrighted works and DeCSS. Until this gets to SCOTUS it is law of the land...Congress and their corporate sponsors are effectively locking away years and years of our culture through legal and technological methods. At the very least let's break the law which prevents even attempting to break the technological protection.

Re:Not every cloud has a silver lining.

[John Biggabooty]

I don't see a silver lining coming from the courts or Congress, but from technology. The DMCA and CTEA remind me of the flurry of laws passed after the invention of the automobile to stifle it, and prop up the horse and buggy industry. They were futile. File trading, and other new technologies are making copyright law unenforceable, and irrelevant. Soon, copyright will be cast into the dustbin of history where it belongs.

Re:Not every cloud has a silver lining.

[Zork the Almighty]

Very much agreed. File sharing would be a minor issue if the copyright industry weren't choking the public domain. However, since they are insisting on total ownership and control, it's going to be a fight to the finish. I don't know if we will ever "win", but I'm pretty confident that the forces of technology and innovation will ensure that we never lose.