[free-sklyarov] U.S. Rep. positions against copy controls

[Ackroyd, Dan]

WASHINGTON--A U.S. congressman said Monday that he intended to change a
controversial copyright law to allow consumers to override technologies that
prevent them from making digital copies of music, movies and software. 

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., said he plans to introduce a bill that would
eliminate the "anti-circumvention" clause of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), a 1998 law that updated copyright laws for the digital
era. 

Intended to discourage piracy, the clause has come under increasing fire
over the past year by people who say it imposes severe limits on the rights
of consumers to make personal backup copies or otherwise control music they
have purchased. The clause has inspired high-profile court battles and made
a minor celebrity out of Dmitry Sklyarov, the Russian programmer jailed for
writing a program that defeated a copy-protection measure in Adobe Systems'
eBook software. 

Boucher told an audience of musicians, lawyers and music industry executives
at the Future of Music policy summit that his bill would modify section 1201
of the DMCA to allow consumers to defeat copy-protection measures for
legitimate personal uses, but it would still outlaw circumvention efforts
for piracy. 

"I'm very concerned about the DMCA," Boucher said. "There's an increasing
number of instances in which unjust results are reached." 
....

On Monday, Boucher pointed out that Vivendi Universal's Universal Music
Group will soon release its new CDs in copy-protected form, making them
impossible to play on personal computers and some CD systems as well. 

Consumers should be able to use computer programs to defeat that copy
protection, he said. 

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The full text can be found at:
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-8396905.html?tag=mn_hd


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If you want to send message of support to Rick Boucher, you can contact him
through his web page at http://www.house.gov/boucher/


Other interesting opinions of Rick Boucher can be on his website at:

"PAY-PER-USE" SOCIETY ONE STEP CLOSER
www.house.gov/boucher/docs/payperuse.htm 


STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN RICK BOUCHER ON INDICTMENT OF DMITRY SKLYAROV AND
ELCOM LTD
http://www.house.gov/boucher/docs/sklyarov.htm


As we say in the UK, sounds like an alright geezer!

cheers
dan ackroyd


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