Libraries and consumers are objecting to new, harsh anti-circumvention statutes being adopted in many of the states. These "state DMCAs" are designed to limit copyright infringement, and to add state remedies, including imprisonment, to federal existing remedies. But either from hasty drafting or overreaching, the state laws may prohibit encrypted email, encryption research, NAT firewalls, anonymous web surfing, reverse engineering, security testing, changing the file format of digital content, and the sale or use of any device --such as a computer-- which is "capable" of circumventing copy protection. According to Jonathan Band, a lawyer for the ARL, the state laws may even prohibit viewing or listening to radio, television, or internet content without the express permission of the content provider. State DMCAs have already been adopted in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, and are under consideration in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The ARL has written a letter to legislators in Arkansas and Colorado, the two states closest to adopting state DMCA's, warning that the bills "will undermine the ability of libraries to provide important information services". The state bills are based on model legislation written by the MPAA. For more details see Declan McCullagh in C|Net News or Andrea Foster in the Chronicle.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/02/2003 07:43:00 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.
