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Zoe Lofgren has, for the last decade, regularly led Congressional work to mitigate the damage of DMCA 1201. (See this one from a few years back https://www.eff.
by dannyobrien 5y ago
Zoe Lofgren has, for the last decade, regularly led Congressional work to mitigate the damage of DMCA 1201. (See this one from a few years back https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/02/fair-use-consumer-protection https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/02/fair-use-consumer-prot... ). EFF currently has a project, Apollo 1201, led by Cory Doctorow, to seek legal challenges to the law.
It can be hard, because 1201 is an implementation of an international treaty, the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty, which requires language on anti-circumvention technology. The Treaty was passed after language similar to 1201 failed to get traction in the US Congress before '96. Treaties, in theory, trump domestic legislation, in that the US has made a commitment to honor the treaty, so the law is meant to reflect that commitment.
However, the treaty itself only specifies that "Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law."; DMCA 1201 goes much further than that. So that we can imagine a fix to the law that returns the US to a more balanced implementation of this language.
However! The United States has also entered into a number of bilateral treaties with other countries, requiring them to also implement DMCA 1201 language, and many states have just cut-and-pasted the 1201 language as part of their compliance with the Copyright Treaty. The EU has similar requirements on its member nations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-circumvention
You might want to read some of EFF's historic reports on the development of the law: https://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-under-dmca/archive https://www.eff.org/wp/unintended-consequences-under-dmca/ar...
Politically, there's been a concern for a number of years that re-opening the DMCA might lead to worse outcomes: ironically, the strongest advocates for revisiting or repealing the DMCA has come from the rightsholders, who feel they have an opportunity (given the tech backlash) to draft an even more draconian law. So I think that opponents of DMCA 1201 have mostly fallen back to advocating for stronger exceptions under the triennial copyright office review of the law, https://www.techdirt.com/tag/triennial-review/ https://www.techdirt.com/tag/triennial-review/ where individuals and companies can push for specific exceptions to the blanket ban. This is where you'll have seen legal permission for filmmakers, videogame archivists, etc.
- coldpie 5y ago> This is where you'll have seen legal permission for filmmakers, videogame archivists, etc An excellent podcast on that very topic (with some links to further reading): https://gamehistory.org/ep-59-dmca-exemption-ruling/ https://gamehistory.org/ep-59-dmca-exemption-ruling/
- schoen 5y agoHey Danny! > So I think that opponents of DMCA 1201 have mostly fallen back to advocating for stronger exceptions under the triennial copyright office review of the law, https://www.techdirt.com/tag/triennial-review/ https://www.techdirt.com/tag/triennial-review/ where individuals and companies can push for specific exceptions to the blanket ban. A sad thing about this strategy is that the triennial review exemptions are only allowed to exempt acts and not tools (that is, the Copyright Office can allow people to circumvent, but not allow people to publish software that helps other people circumvent). And then also that the exemptions don't autorenew, but rather expire after three years and have to be argued for again.
- theandrewbailey 5y ago> that is, the Copyright Office can allow people to circumvent, but not allow people to publish software that helps other people circumvent Publish source code in book form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junger_v._Daley
- dannyobrien 5y agoI know that you meant this more generally, rather than a direct response to Seth Schoen, but I'll just note that Seth is semi-famous for doing just that, with the DeCSS Haiku: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS_haiku https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS_haiku While the Bernstein case is a great victory, there's also the 2600 case in the Second Circuit: https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/why-2600-magazine-is-not-going-all-the-way-to-the-supreme-court-with-its-digital-music-copyright-act-challenge.html https://supreme.findlaw.com/legal-commentary/why-2600-magazi...