The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is urging Congress to revise the DMCA. The Felten and Sklyarov cases proved to the organization that scholarly and professional freedoms are in danger. Quoting Glenn Tenney, chair of the IEEE's Intellectual Property Committee: "As the law is written, engineers can do the research, but it isn’t clear if they can publish the results. This situation can have a very chilling effect on the industry." The IP Committee has written a position paper asking Congress to clarify when research on encryption and computer security may be published without fear of criminal sanctions. This clarification would not only remove the direct chill on academic freedom, as researchers censor themselves to avoid liability, but would also disarm private companies who use the DMCA to inhibit lawful research by threatening groundless lawsuits. A second position paper asks Congress to revise the notice-and-takedown procedures that enable publishers to force ISPs to remove allegedly infringing content without any proof of infringement. (PS: While both these position papers are dated June 2002, the IEEE newsletter drew special attention to them in a February 7 story. Is a new lobbying campaign in the works?) (Thanks to C-FIT.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 2/12/2003 08:02:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
