US Representatives Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) have introduced legislation to the US House of Representatives that seeks to amend the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to make the Act more consumer friendly in terms of fair use of digital media.
The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship (or FAIR USE) Act seeks to make things easier for consumers to use the content they buy across numerous devices, where as today the DMCA legally restricts such uses.
Rich Boucher told the Washington Post that “Without a change in the law, individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media if their use of the media within the home is severely circumscribed and the manufacturers of equipment and software that enables circumvention for legitimate purposes will be reluctant to introduce the products into the market” and has the backing of the Consumer Electronics Association.
ars technica on the other hand argues that the proposed changes do not go far enough, stating that the bill does not appear to propose what many proponents are seeking: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials, with;
no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA made illegal in one fell swoop.
Personally, some changes should be better than none at all, but I’m not American. Any thoughts?
Originally posted on February 27, 2007 @ 7:51 pm