From News.com
WASHINGTON–A congressman who is trying to defang a controversial copyright law said Tuesday that he’s not deterred by an acquittal in the first criminal prosecution brought under it.
Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., who in October proposed rescinding part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), said the law remains a problem even though a jury ruled a software maker ElcomSoft was not guilty of willfully violating it.
“As far as the bill going forward is concerned, the need for the legislation is as great as ever,” Boucher said in an interview. “While this jury reached a commendable decision, another jury in a future case that involves similar facts could well convict. The law clearly contemplates conviction in circumstances where no infringement occurs, but the technology facilitates bypassing a technological protection measure.”
By repealing key portions of the DMCA, Boucher’s bill would have prevented the Justice Department from prosecuting ElcomSoft, a Russian company that sold a program to remove the copy protection from Adobe Systems’ e-books. If the proposed Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act, co-sponsored by John Doolittle, R-Calif., were to become law, ElcomSoft’s Advanced eBook Processor would become legal to sell.
Boucher said he will reintroduce his bill without any changes when the 108th Congress convenes in January. “The result of such a law remaining on the books is that companies will be more reluctant to introduce new technology that has lawful uses such as facilitating the exercise of fair use rights, but which also circumvents technological protection measures and could facilitate copyright infringement,” Boucher said. “And so to encourage the introduction of useful technologies, the legislation is needed and it will go forward.”
The Boucher-Doolittle bill would make three changes to the DMCA, all designed to permit people to bypass copy-protection schemes for legitimate purposes:
� An exemption would be created saying anyone who “is acting solely in furtherance of scientific research into technological protection measures” would be able to distribute his or her code. That would permit Felten and other researchers–such as a programmer being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a current lawsuit–to publish their work without the threat of lawsuits.
� Bypassing technological protections would be permissible if done for legitimate “fair-use” purposes. The bill says it would not be a violation of federal law to “circumvent a technological measure”–as long as it does not lead to “an infringement of the copyright in the work.”
� Creating a utility like DeCSS.exe might become legal. The bill says it would be legal to “manufacture, distribute, or make noninfringing use of a hardware or software product capable of enabling significant noninfringing use of a copyrighted work.”
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