Boucher's Anti-DMCA Bill Gets High Profile Allies

Landaras writes "News.com is reporting that a newly-formed alliance called the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition is throwing their support and lobbying efforts behind Rep. Rick Boucher's (D-Va) Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act. Members of the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition include Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and BellSouth. The EFF and the American Library Association are also in support."

Comments

The most important section...

[sploo22]

IMHO, the most important section of this bill is section 5(b)(2):

(b) FAIR USE RESTORATION- Section 1201(c) of title 17, United States Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting before the period at the end the following: `and it is not a violation of this section to circumvent a technological measure in connection with access to, or the use of, a work if such circumvention does not result in an infringement of the copyright in the work'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(5) It shall not be a violation of this title to manufacture, distribute, or make noninfringing use of a hardware or software product capable of enabling significant noninfringing use of a copyrighted work.'.

Finally, at least some of our rights are being upheld.

Re:This certainly smells of election-year politici

[Ian Wolf]

This certainly smells of election-year politicing

Normally, I'd be inclined to agree, but Rep. Boucher has been championing this issue for some time now.

Story 1
Story 2
Story 3
Story 4
Story 5

There are of course many more. This bill was originally introduced in 2002. This guy is the real deal.

I didn't go back far enough to get the link of his interview here on /., but I'm sure somebody probably already has since I started this post.