IEEE backs off on DMCA

Yet another sign that large organizations are dismissing the validity of the DMCA: “A major publisher of scientific research is reversing a policy requiring its writers to comply with a hotly debated U.S. copyright law. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) said it will no longer require authors to attest that their work does not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The IEEE, publisher of nearly one-third of all computer science journals, said it is removing the requirement because it turned out to be more contentious than expected. ‘The DMCA’s been so bloody controversial,’ Bill Hagen, the IEEE’s intellectual property rights manager said Tuesday. ‘On one hand, it protects our content. On the other hand, it’s been used in a way that’s gotten a lot of people pretty angry.’” Click here for the full story at ZDnet.com.