Re: [dvd-discuss] The 2nd Front

[Bryan Taylor <bryan_w_taylor(at)yahoo.com>]

In order for changes to the law to become law, a bill would have to be
introduced. This bill would have to make it out of committee in order to be
voted on by the full House or Senate. The committee chairs can easily block
this from happening. The particular committe chairs, I believe, are Coble in
the House and Feinstein in the Senate, who both have the attitude that
"Copyright owners haven't complained about the bill, so it must be great for
America". Both are bigtime MPAA campaign contribution recipients.

The upshot of all of this is that efforts to change the law have to include
efforts to influence or remove particular individuals in Congress who hold
entrenched viewpoints on the subject.

--- Jim Bauer <jfbauer@home.com> wrote:
> There has been a lot of effort expended on fighting
> the DMCA in court.  Unfortunately, success has been rather,
> uh, uh, limited.  But I haven't seen much on fighting this
> battle from the other end.  i.e. getting the law itself
> re-written.  I don't pretend to think this will be easy,
> but every little bit helps.  Here are the steps as I see them.
> 
> 1) Outline problems with current law.  Much of this has been done.
> 2) Come up with changes that would improve things.
> 3) Find a sympathetic senator and representative.
> 4) Propose the changes to them.
> 
> I think for this is to work, the proposal has to appear to
> not be to significant of a change or else it'll meet
> too much resistance.  But, of course, it will have to be
> rather significant to be of any good.
> 
> I started writting up some proposed changes.  This is what I
> have so far.
> 
>                       -----------------------
> Purpose
> 
>         To restore the delicate balance between copyright holders
>         and the public.
> 
> 
> 1201(a)(1)(A)
> 
>         Insert "for the purpose of copyright infringement" after the
>         word "measure".
> 
>         [No person shall circumvent a technological measure for the purpose
>         of copyright infringement that effectively controls access to a work
>         protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the
>         preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year
>         period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter. ]
> 
> 
> 
> 1201(a)(3)(A)
> 
>         Insert "for the purpose of copyright infringement"
>         after the word "owner".
> 
>         [to ''circumvent a technological measure'' means to descramble
>         a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to
>         avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological
>         measure, without the authority of the copyright owner for the
>         purpose of copyright infringement; and ]
> 
> 1201(a)(3)(C)
> 
>         New paragraph.  "'authority of the copyright owner' means
>         permissions granted via any contractual means or via sale,
>         or re-sale of a copy of any copyrighted work.
> 
> 1201(b)(1)(A)
> 
>         Insert "copyright infringement by" before the word "circumventing".
> 
>         [is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of copyright
>         infringement by circumventing protection afforded by a
>         technological measure that effectively protects a right of a
>         copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion
>         thereof;]
> 
> 
> 1201(c)(5)
> 
>         Add new sub-section as follows.  "Nothing in this section
>         shall interfere, or otherwise affect a legitimate owner of a
>         copy of a copyrighted work from using whatever means necessary
>         to access, view, excerpt, quote, backup, archive, or resell
>         the work."
> 
>                       -----------------------
> 
> 
> -- 
> Jim Bauer, jfbauer@home.com


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