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[FYI] (Fwd) Activists want to repeal DMCA, but Washington, DC still
- To: debate@lists.fitug.de
- Subject: [FYI] (Fwd) Activists want to repeal DMCA, but Washington, DC still
- From: "Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 17:57:53 +0200
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 10:28:49 -0400
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
To: cryptography@wasabisystems.com
Subject: Activists want to repeal DMCA, but Washington, DC still loves it
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45522,00.html
Congress No Haven for Hackers
By Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
2:00 a.m. July 25, 2001 PDT
WASHINGTON -- Even as the world's geeks march against the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, key legislators and lobbyists are
dismissing concerns about the controversial law as hyperbole.
The law that led to the arrest of Russian programmer Dmitry
Sklyarov last week and an immediate outcry among programmers
continues to enjoy remarkably broad support on Capitol Hill. No
bill has yet been introduced in Congress to amend the DMCA for one
simple reason: Official Washington loves the law precisely as much
as hackers and programmers despise it.
"The law is performing the way we hoped," said Rep. Howard Coble
(R-North Carolina), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on
intellectual property.
The FBI arrested Sklyarov last week in Las Vegas for allegedly
"trafficking" in software that circumvents the copy protection
techniques that Adobe uses in its e-book format. Under the DMCA,
selling such software is a federal felony punishable by up to five
years in prison and a fine of $500,000.
"As far as I know there have been very few complaints from
intellectual property holders," Coble, the chief sponsor of the
DMCA, said in an interview Tuesday. "I am also encouraged by the
Department of Justice's actions in this matter to enforce the law."
When Congress approved the DMCA in October 1998 after about a
year's worth of little-noticed debate and negotiations, it was
hardly a controversial bill. The Senate agreed to it unanimously,
and a unanimous House approved it by voice vote, then bypassed a
procedural step that would have delayed the DMCA's enactment.
Since the House procedure says attempts to rewrite copyright law
must start in Coble's subcommittee, the odds of a DMCA rewrite in
Congress' lower chamber seem remote.
Coble's counterpart in the Senate, California Democrat Dianne
Feinstein, feels the same way.
"We need to protect copyrights and this law was designed to do
that," said Howard Gantman, a spokesman for Feinstein, who chairs
the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on technology. "She's not looking
to change it."
[...]
But in the world of Washington politics, geektivists are woefully
outnumbered by the natives who populate and influence confirmation
hearings: Corporate, nonprofit and trade association lobbyists.
"We believe that a careful effort was made by Congress to balance
the rights of intellectual property owners and the rights of
intellectual property consumers," says Allan Adler, vice president
at the Association of American Publishers, which applauded
Sklyarov's arrest last week.
[...]
The Free-Dmitry movement argues that programmers should not be
prosecuted for creating software that can circumvent copyright
protection -- since such tools have many legitimate uses, such as
reading an e-book on another computer, as well.
But DMCA aficionados say there are precedents for broad
prohibitions on selling devices that can have both legitimate and
illegitimate uses.
Current federal law makes it a felony to own, distribute or
advertise for sale bugging or wiretapping devices that are "primary
useful for the purpose of surreptitious interception of wire, oral
or electronic communications." That applies even to parents who
might want to monitor what their young children are doing, or to
other commonplace uses.
You're also not allowed to possess hardware or software such as
cell phone cloning devices that let you "obtain telecommunications
service without authorization" -- even if your motives are pure.
[...]
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