Rik Lambers, Restriking the balance: from DMCA to DMCRA, Indicare, January 20, 2005. Excerpt: 'Historically US copyright law has sought a balance between rightsholders' and consumers' interests. The anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [DMCA] have changed this balance to the benefit of rightsholders. Proposed legislation tries to restore the balance: the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act [DMCRA] would reaffirm fair use for consumers and augment the transparency of the use of technological protection measures....Under the DMCA scientific researchers may only circumvent technological protection measures for encryption research under specific circumstances. Infamous is how Princeton University Professor Ed Felten was threatened with a DMCA lawsuit when he wanted to publish his research on weaknesses in a certain digital music security system (the Secure Digital Music Initiative). Felten initially withdrew his research. As a result both the academic freedom of speech and the progress of science were hindered by the (mis)use of a DMCA provision. The DMCRA would provide that researchers can analyse other technological protection measures than encryption and allows them to manufacture the circumvention tools to do so. Valid scientific research would be restored, bringing more security, and presumably also more secure technological measures.'
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/21/2005 10:35:00 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.
