[free-sklyarov] Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress

[Nick Moffitt]

Dr. James Billington is a russophile and the USA's Librarian of
Librarians.  

Perhaps we should send him letters on the subject.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/11/01/digital.copyright.idg/
> Billington based his statements on the recommendations of the
> register of copyrights, who was assigned to consider a wide range of
> possible adverse impacts of the prohibition. The Copyright Office's
> primary responsibility was to assess whether current technologies
> that control access to copyrighted works are "diminishing the
> ability of individuals to use works in lawful, non-infringing ways,"
> Billington said in the statement.
> 
> Robert Dizard Jr., staff director of the Copyright Office, said the
> register of copyrights found that the access controls were adversely
> affecting people who wanted to access the two exempt classes of
> work.  The register made the recommendation based on public comments
> showing problems with these two particular classes, Dizard said,
> adding that the ruling should not be considered a defeat or victory
> for any particular group.
> 
> "We would not characterize this as a rulemaking to select winners
> and losers," he said. "Congress indicated in the statute that the
> record had to clearly support an adverse affect" in order to obtain
> an exemption.

http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon/alwn9085.html
> The Librarian of Congress James Billington has ruled against the
> American public and library users by negating fair use in the
> digital arena. Billington allowed only two exceptions in the fair
> use proceeding involving the 1201 anticircumvention provision of the
> Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
> 
> A preliminary review of the ruling reveals that Billington adopted
> recommendations by Marybeth Peters, Register of Copyrights, to
> provide exemptions only for malfunctions and to determine which
> sites are blocked by filtering software. The exemption related to
> circumventing filtering software may be useful although problematic.

http://www.uwex.edu/disted/desien/2000/0011/copyright.htm
> LIBRARIANS AND DIGITAL COPYRIGHT - Affirmation of the Digital
> Millennium Copyright Act by the Library of Congress, has angered
> librarians. The DMCA, gives owners of copyrighted digital content
> control over how that content is accessed. There is particular
> concern about making certain that the precepts of the "fair use"
> principle are carried over to the digital age. The Librarian of
> Congress, James Billington, has recently said that he believes it is
> very important that the fair-use principle be maintained. He also
> affirmed that the new legislation affects access, not content use.
> The ruling most severely impacts students, academics and others
> performing scholarly research by preventing them from getting around
> technological protection measures when referring to copyrighted
> material. (InformationWeek Online, 30 Oct 00)



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slovenly, while FBI agents are very persistent in hunting them." --Pravda
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