Re: [dvd-discuss] LA Times Article re: DMCA and Copyright Office

["Glendon M. Gross" <gross(at)xinetd.ath.cx>]

The article, by Edmund Sanders,  says that the U.S. Copyright office was 
unprepared in many ways to assume the responsibility that the U.S. 
Congress delegated to them in the 1990's.   The title of the article is 
"She Holds the Cards in Copyright Fight" and discusses how Marybeth 
Peters, who has worked for 38 years in the U.S. Copyright office, has 
found her life challenged by the new regulatory role of the Copyright 
Office:

"And the Copyright Office has denied virtually every request by 
librarians, educators and consumers seeking exceptions to the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act. The law makes it a crime to bypass 
copy-protection devices in CDs, DVDs and other digital products, even to 
make a legally permissible copy."


   Apparently there were demonstrations in front of her office when she 
started her job.  [Was this sponsered by the E.F.F.?]

Here's an excerpt:

"Congress keeps giving us things to do, and some of them have taken over 
our lives," Peters said.

"In the mid-1990s -- against the wishes of many in Peters' office, she 
said -- Congress gave the agency responsibility for resolving disputes 
over royalties and compulsory licenses, such as how much satellite TV 
providers must pay broadcasters or how much Web radio stations should 
pay music companies.

"In 1998, lawmakers surprised the Copyright Office by giving it 
regulatory authority every three years to make exceptions to the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention law for those who can show 
they are being unfairly harmed.

Peters was amazed by the public reaction to her agency's new job. In 
2000, protesters picketed outside the Library of Congress to push for 
broader exemptions to the DMCA."




The article concludes:

"Some would like to see Peters become more active in negotiating a truce 
in the copyright battle. But she said that is not her role, unless 
Congress asks.

"We've offered on more than one occasion to take on an assignment from 
Congress to try to get the parties together to see if they could come up 
with some guidelines for uses under the fair-use doctrine," Peters said. 
"Nobody took us up on it."



microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> On 19 Oct 2002 at 17:51, Glendon M. Gross wrote:
> 
> Date sent:      	Sat, 19 Oct 2002 17:51:31 -0700
> From:           	"Glendon M. Gross" <gross@xinetd.ath.cx>
> To:             	dvd-discuss <dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu>
> Subject:        	[dvd-discuss] LA Times Article re: DMCA and Copyright Office
> Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> 
> 
>>Forgive me if this link has already been posted here, I might have 
>>missed it.  This article was interesting to me because it seems to 
>>address some of the problems with the DMCA.
>>
>>http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-copy19oct19,0,5760167.story?coll=la%2Dhead
>>lines%2Dbusiness
>>
> 
> 
> 
> So what was the gist of it? I refuse to register with the LATIMES.
> 
>