FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

FC: Linux users in DC plan protest of U.S. copyright law

------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:19:37 -0500 To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Linux users in DC plan protest of U.S. copyright law Copies to: dmca-press@tuxers.net Send reply to: declan@well.com

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http://www.tuxers.net/dmca/dmca-press-release.txt

Linux Users to Protest New Copyright Law in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 21, 2000 -- Members of the Linux user groups in the Washington, D.C. area have announced a protest against provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It will be held on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 28th, from 9-12 AM.

The DMCA was enacted in 1998, and its most objectionable provisions took effect as Section 1201 of U.S. Code Title 17. The DMCA grants copyright holders sweeping legal protection for technological access control measures, regardless of whether those access control measures are reasonable, fair, or justified by legitimate copyright enforcement concerns. In effect, it lets copyright holders write their own arbitrary copyright laws which are nominally enforced by these access control measures (such as weak encryption). The DMCA then outlaws circumventing these access controls for virtually any reason, even by legitimate paying customers engaged in "fair use" activities.

A portion of the DMCA is not yet in effect and is in a comment period. But other provisions which prohibit the distribution of circumvention technologies are already in effect and are being used by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to threaten parties who are attempting to develop Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) player software for the Linux operating system -- a case in which no actual copyright infringement has even been alleged.

As it now stands, the DMCA could permit a few large organizations who hold copyrights and also control distribution technologies (such as the MPAA does with DVD video) to gain an unassailable stranglehold over their respective markets -- to the detriment of both independent content producers and consumers. In order to make the law balanced, the provisions which grant protection to technological access controls need to be revised to be strictly confined to protection against copyright infringement. Even then, no special legal protection should be granted to access controls which stifle free market competition, preclude technological innovation, curtail "fair use" by legitimate consumers, or raise barriers to independent distribution of artistic works.

For more information, please see: http://www.tuxers.net/dmca/ DCLUG Home Page (Bethesda, MD): http://dclug.tux.org/ NovaLUG Home Page (Chantilly, VA): http://novalug.tux.org/

Email Press Contact: dmca-press@tuxers.net Email Contact for Volunteers: dmca-protest@tuxers.net

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