Re: [dvd-discuss] New DMCA case: ACLU sues filtering software maker N2H2

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

Wasn't there something about blocking software in the LOC's report. I vaguely
remember that web blocking software was specifically named as an exception. 

--- Declan McCullagh <lists@politechbot.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> http://news.com.com/2100-1023-946266.html?tag=politech
> 
>    ACLU lawsuit targets copyright law
>    By Declan McCullagh
>    July 25, 2002, 6:30 AM PT
> 
>    WASHINGTON--The American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a lawsuit
>    on Thursday in an attempt to overturn key portions of a controversial
>    1998 copyright law.
> 
>    The suit asks a federal judge to rule that the Digital Millennium
>    Copyright Act (DMCA) is so sweeping that it unconstitutionally
>    interferes with researchers' ability to evaluate the effectiveness of
>    Internet filtering software.
> 
>    By suing on behalf of a 22-year-old programmer who's researching the
>    oft-buggy products, the civil liberties group hopes to prompt the
>    first ruling that would curtail the DMCA's wide reach.
> 
>    After the DMCA was used to intimidate Princeton professor Ed Felten
>    and his colleagues into self-censoring a presentation last year, the
>    law became an instant magnet for criticism. But so far, every judge
>    has upheld the DMCA's broad restrictions on the "circumvention of
>    copyright protection systems."
> 
>    This case will be different, the ACLU hopes, because it features a
>    sympathetic plaintiff, Ben Edelman, and because it involves the
>    socially beneficial act of critiquing software that is frequently used
>    in public schools and libraries. Edelman had testified as an expert
>    witness in a case the ACLU brought against a federal law that
>    compelled public libraries to install filters.
> 
>    [...]


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