The Bizarre Process Used For Approving Exemptions To the DMCA

harrymcc writes: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act imposes severe penalties on those who overcome copy-protection technologies. It allows for exemptions for a variety of purposes — but in a weird proviso, those exemptions must be re-approved by the Librarian of Congress every three years. Over at Fast Company, Glenn Fleishman takes a look at this broken system and why it's so bad for our rights as consumers. "The Librarian has opted to require one or more 'champions' or proponents of a carefully defined category, like "Audiovisual works – educational uses – colleges and universities," to file a brief. His office also opens the floor to rebuttals from opponents. Further, the Librarian sunsets every exemption every three years—something not required by the law, and which requires champions to arise again to launch a new defense. The office also doesn't propose its own examples of circumvention that should be permitted, even though the law permits it to do so."

Comments

Sunset provisions are good.

[Ichijo]

If only the DMCA itself had one.

Re:Sunset provisions are good.

[Gennerik]

How true. The scope that it covers with worded ambiguity is ridiculous, especially when dealing with companies that refuse to give consumers power to enjoy what they have spent money on, even when faced with companies abandoning some products entirely (except as a way to create lawsuits).

Re:Sunset provisions are good.

[davester666]

It's almost as if the industry wrote the law and is responsible for directing the government as to how to enforce it.

CopyOnce Protection should be removed on Video

[ZippyTheChicken]

For a few years now i have been using Microsoft Media Center to DVR video that I capture from my Cable TV Company There are now two really pending problems that will effect me and everyone else. As of Windows 10 Microsoft will no longer distribute Media Center.. I have already applied for the free upgrade to Win10 but I don't think I can upgrade past Win7 now because of this. That means I will be forced to run a deprecated OS if I want to continue to watch the content I recorded for my personal use. The CopyOnce tag that is now in most of my Cable TV channel signals will now limit me from recording shows I can't watch live or want to save to rewatch. Between Windows 10 and Comcast locking up even stations like SyFy, Comedy Central, Bravo, USA, AMC, Spike and many others with CopyOnce protection there is no way to use a CableCard Ceton Tuner or SiliconDust and another device like a Android or Roku to get TV signal that is CopyOnce protected to your television and you can completely forget Recording it for later. So basically CopyOnce and the problems with MediaCenter and Other Software means everyone who wants to take advantage of the FCC Regulation that allows / Forces Cable Companies to allow customers to buy a CableCard tuner and not rent one... that is over... or you can use a deprecated OS to connect your Xbox or something to your tv... This means I am locked into Comcast's DVRs which are extremely expensive for me to afford .. I do not own any because of that. and I will have lost a couple years worth of shows I have recorded .. many that are no longer broadcast on TV even in Reruns... Additionally The Simpsons has just announced that they will no longer distribute on DVD Microsoft says that Windows 10 Will NOT have DVD support This means you will have to rely on a thirdparty product to watch your DVDs if you can find one that works with copyright protection. I don't own any myself. This is very expensive .. we are talking thousands of dollars and more for the average home. The Simpsons will now only distribute by streaming Comcast is introducing some hardcore data caps that will charge you for every gig of data over 10 gigs per month... it has already been implemented in Kentucky and people with fast connections who stream can end up paying a hundred or more a month just to watch online content from ANY SOURCE. CopyOnce should not be allowed on normal Cable TV Stations. It should be allowed on Premium Pay Stations like HBO or the Porn Channels.. neither of which i subscribe to because of cost.

Re:CopyOnce Protection should be removed on Video

[dcollins117]

Holy crap, I'm surprised anyone put up with as much as you did for as long as you did. That's really above and beyond what anyone should have to deal with. Have you considered looking into an open source OS like Linux Mint or Ubuntu? You can install it side by side with Windows or run it in a virtual machine without negatively affecting your existing Windows installation. That will give you the control over your media collection that you really need. You have more than paid dearly for those files, you should be able to use them the way you want.

good principle!

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

those exemptions must be re-approved by the Librarian of Congress every three years

We should apply the same idea to Congress and the laws it passes: every law should have to be re-approved by every new Congress individually.

Turn over, Benjamin Franklin

[Anonymous Coward]

... which requires champions to arise again to launch a new defense ...

The US library of Congress ensures that copyright holders have more rights than consumers. I think Benjamin Franklin would be horrified by this unfettered exercise in fascism.

Re:The results are just as bad

[russotto]

There's no exemption for products. If they don't renew the exemption, you have to stop doing the activity. The exemption process never was meant to work; it was just to make the law look slightly less Draconian (and various groups are pissed off that it somehow managed to produce as many exemptions as it has)

Why doesn't 1201-a-1-A nullify itself?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm no lawyer but section 1201-a-1-A readS:
"No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter. "

Personally I'm shocked nobody has ever tried to defend a DMCA decryption request on the grounds that the control does not 'effectively' control access to the work, because it is easily broken. Something can't 'effectively control access' if it is not actually successful in doing so. This provision reads like 'It's illegal to bypass something that nobody has been able to bypass', at which point the act of successfully bypassing it would make the bypassing itself legal...... ... ok, maybe it's a good thing legislatures don't think recursively, but still...

Simple solution.

[Ecuador]

Just get the right librarian for the job.
Ook.