A conservative Republican lawmaker is
expected to announce a bill next week that would dramatically scale
back the ability of record labels, movie studios and others to use
anticopying technology, according to a source familiar with the
proposal.
The bill, authored by Sen. Sam Brownback, would regulate digital rights
management systems, granting consumers the right to resell copy-protected
products and requiring manufacturers to prominently disclose when anti-copying
technology is being used.
The Kansas Republican’s proposal also could derail the recording industry’s
legal pursuit of the identity of a Verizon Communications subscriber by
requiring a lawsuit be filed before the name of an alleged peer-to-peer pirate is
disclosed to a copyright holder. That would amend the 1998 Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, which a federal court concluded does not require a judge’s
approval before a copyright holder can force the disclosure of a suspected
pirate’s identity.
The main thrust of the Brownback bill, however, is to slap regulations on digital
rights management (DRM) technology, which has become increasingly popular
as a way to reduce widespread copyright infringement on the Internet. Last
month, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stressed his company’s support for DRM
technology, and Apple Computer uses DRM to limit how customers can reuse
music downloaded from the iTunes Music Store. Some consumer groups argue
that DRM infringes on the right to make “fair use” of copyrighted works and to
back up legally purchased digital files.
If the Brownback proposal were enacted, the Federal Trade Commission would
have the power to ban DRM systems that limit a consumer’s right to resell any
“digital media product,” a category that includes everything from computer
software and e-books to copy-protected CDs and movies. It also says that
companies selling such products must offer “clear and conspicuous notice or a
label on the product” that follows FTC regulations starting one year after the
law’s enactment, unless the FTC determines that industry groups have created
reasonable “voluntary” guidelines on their own.
Click Here for full text of article and draft of legislation.
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