EFFector 14.20: ALERT: FTAA treaty DMCA-ized (fwd)

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>]

Kleiner Ausschnitt. Kann man sagen, dass man ein "Recht" auf "fair
use" hat ? Oder wurde man blos nicht verfolgt etc, war es eine Grenze des
Urheberrechts ? Jedenfalls hatte man eine Position, auf grund derrer man
Schallplatten usw fuer private Zwecke...

    Background:

   Much like the DMCA, the current draft of the FTAA agreement forbids
   the act of circumventing a "technological protection measure" that
   controls the use of a copyrighted work. It also bans making or
   providing tools that could help another to use a copyrighted work.
   Unlike the DMCA, however, the language currently proposed for the FTAA
   treaty doesn't include even a single exemption that would permit
   activities like lawful reverse engineering, protecting privacy, fair
   use rights, encryption research, and countless other reasons a person
   might need to override the publisher's controls. (And the DMCA only
   includes a few very narrow exemptions to the general ban on
   circumvention, but they have so far proven completely useless to
   everyone who has attempted to rely on them.)

   Even though copyright law gives individuals rights such as fair use,
   the DMCA and FTAA's proposed anti-circumvention provisions outlaw all
   tools that are necessary to exercise those rights, effectively killing
   fair use in the digital age. These measures ensure works are prevented
   from taking their place in the public domain, denying the public what
   rightfully belongs to it under the law. The guarantees of free
   expression under the First Amendment, other constitutions & laws in
   other countries, and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human
   Rights, rightly prevent publishers from having complete control over
   the way in which copyrighted works can be used. But the DMCA and its
   counterpart in the FTAA treaty ignore this principle and would grant
   publishing companies the power to turn individual rights into "product
   features" that can be disabled at the whim of the publisher.

   Since its passage, the DMCA has thus far been used to: censor a
   journalist reporting on a controversial software program; attempt to
   squelch the research of a Princeton professor who discovered the
   vulnerabilities of the music industry's favored technology; and arrest
   a foreign computer programmer for developing software that allows
   lawful purchasers of electronic books to view them in ways not
   supported by a competitor's viewing software. Because it wishes to
   consistently abuse these powers throughout the world, rather than
   merely in the United States, Hollywood and the rest of the copyright
   industry are now attempting to export this legal regime throughout the
   world.

   It is truly ironic that the United States, once the beacon for
   promoting the principles of freedom of expression, is now
   systematically infecting other countries with this dangerous public
   policy choice that will restrict more speech than any law before it.
   FTAA's anti-circumvention provisions represent US imperialism at its
   worst. They seek to impose restrictive laws on both the US and other
   countries, in order to prevent established US businesses from facing
   both domestic and foreign competition. These competitors would offer
   the public much better deals than these businesses wish to offer,
   which is why the small number of companies that control music, movie
   and book distribution seek to have these competitors outlawed. The
   anti-circumvention provisions' terrible effects on freedom of speech,
   scientific advancement, and actual computer security, as well as on
   public libraries and access to knowledge, are merely "incidental"
   damage, suffered by society for the benefit of these businesses.

   To view the proposed FTAA treaty language, see:
     http://www.ftaa-alca.org/ftaadraft/eng/draft_e.doc [MS-Word]

   For more information on the FTAA treaty process, see:
     http://www.ftaa-alca.org/alca_e.asp

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