FAIR USE Act
Earlier this week a bill was introduced into Congress that purports to clarify exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) that apply to fair use of digital media. Called the FAIR USE act, a press release on the sponsor’s website (Rep. Rick Boucher) states that the bill is designed to rebalance the rights of copyright owners and the rights of those who use copyrighted material, a balance he feels was thrown off by the DMCA.
Interestingly, this bill, which the sponsor says is intended primarily to benefit personal, home users of digital media, is officially titled the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007. I’m not exactly sure how personal use and entrepreneurship connect, except that it makes the acronym FAIR USE, so maybe there’s nothing to read into the title other than that politicians will do anything for a catchy title.
Anyway, as of this posting, the text of the bill was not yet available due to a backup in the Government Printing Office, but Boucher believes he has made changes to the proposed bill that will satisfy some specific concerns raised by copyright owners when the bill was introduced in the previous two congressional sessions. A number of consumer groups have already registered support for the bill. We’ll have to wait and see what the recording and publishing industry groups say about it.
Although the last ten years or so has seen a lot of legislative and legal activity on copyright issues due to the explosion of new digital technology that has made copying and storing vast amounts of material incredibly easy, it’s important to keep all this in perspective. It’s important to address questions related to new technology, but the battles over how new technology intersects with copyright laws have been going on almost since the first copyright law was written. At the turn of the 19th century predictions of dire consequences were made when player piano rolls of popular music were found not to be covered by copyright laws. The earliest radio broadcasts of music performances set off strikes by orchestras who were concerned that people would no longer pay to see them perform in person. The cassette tape recorder created new hysteria, and movie producers joined the “sky is falling” brigade when video cassette recorders were introduced. Digital issues need to be addressed, but we’ll get it figured out.
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