Stop the Digital Millenium Copyright Act ( DMCA )

To:  The House of Represenatives and other applicable legislative bodies

It has come to the attention of myself, a concerned consumer, that various legislative bodies, namely the house of Represenatives in addition to many state governing bodies, are considering a proposal known as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This act as it is currently written invades upon my rights to fair use of the media that I purchase. With this act in place my rights will be badly violated just for the opportunity for copyright holders to have extra control over how I use the products that I pay for.

What follows are a listing of the particular sections of the law I find most distressing and an example of why each would hurt me as a consumer:

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Example 1. SEC. 404. EXEMPTION FOR LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES. This section has rules that basically state that libraries must not allow users access to digital copies of their archives outside library premises.

Not content with the current system whereby libraries, the main equalizer and source of community knowledge, can lend out materials it has purchased to patrons of the library, copyright owners having been unsuccessful at curtailing "old media" lending, have with the DMCA made future libraries obsolete.
The way they do this is by making digital works unlendable. Certainly with all the talk about "restricting curcuimvention of copyprotection" you would assume there could be a way to lend copies of library materials to the public in digital form without causing unlimited piracy. In fact, in Alaska for instance, there are systems in place that do just that.

These systems allow users in a defined "home area" such as citizens of state of Alaska, access to a database of works, such as magazine articles or specialized databases, which are not accessible to those not they are not lisenced for and without the ability to "wholesale" copy them. This works outside the library system, and can be accessed from the homes of Alaskans. This is a lisenced system, is not an infringement, but at the same time, it signals an area whereby copyright holders might be able to make more money at the expense of public knowledge if only they could cut down and make illegal such a system.

This is what the DMCA does. As the knowledge of the future becomes more and more digital-centric, the DMCA allows libraries to fade into obscurity as their 21st century equivalent becomes outlawed and the 20th century library becomes irrelevant. By flat out not allowing digital data lending in any form, the DMCA attempts to squeeze one more dollar out of the people who usually can least afford it: library users.

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Example 2: 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems. This states that under almost all curcuimstances I may not curcuimvent copy protection schemes.

This seems reasonable enough at first glance. However this has several implications. Actions I take for granted in order to go about fair use of software and media will be disallowed or caught in red tape as I try to abide by the rules in this section of the law. Shown below is an example of the possible implications for the average consumer. This has additional repercussions for software designers, system administrators, and others.

What this means to the average consumer is that I cannot make 'backup' or 'space shifter' type copies of materials I have paid to use, since all media in the future will be protected by some type of "copy protection scheme" no matter how primitive. I will no longer be able to for example, copy cds onto tapes for use in my car, or to make backup copies of expensive programs I have purchased. The end result is I may have to buy a new copy of a product when the media it was origionally stored on fails, or when the copyright owner decides I no longer should have access to the product I have paid for. Every cd for quite some time has been "copy protected". This is evidenced when I try to burn a copy of an audio cd. The cd-burning software almost without exception says "this cd has been copy protected." and continues on to copy the cd anyway. Clearly whatever copy protection has been implemented is is not very effective, however under the DMCA the act of copying a disc such as this that proclaims to be copy protected (wether it is or not) would become illegal, subject to civil or criminal penalties.

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Example 3: 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems section (k) CERTAIN ANALOG DEVICES AND CERTAIN TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES. This section severlely limits my rights to make personal copies of analog recordings or paid broadcasts and watch legal copies of copy protected works.

This section is somewhat more innocuous to the average law abiding citizen, but is also worth mentioning. Few people make "legal backup copies" of their VHS tapes, and as such, it may seem like a good idea to limit the ability to copy these works. After all there is a clause that such copy protection must not interfere with the visual quality of legal copies.

However, the assumption that this clause works as advertised is wrong and to illustrate why here is the following example. In the case of DVDs for example, the mere playing of a dvd, the signal of which being routed through a VCR, in most cases leads to an annoying fading in and out effect, whereby it is almost impossible to enjoy watching a movie I have paid in excess of $20 to buy. These copy protections are only supposed to take effect when the material is recorded, but it does not. Since many televisions and dvd players do not have compatible input / output jacks, the only method of viewing these discs is by routing the signal through a VCR. Since the playback quality is so low, the only way to view a good version of your movie under such a system is to curcuimvent the copy protection or to use a VCR without this copy protection, both methods being subject to civil and or criminal penalties under the DMCA.

I at first wondered why this would happen under this system, since there is a specific clause stating that legal playbacks should not be visually detracted from by the copyright protection. After some thought, I realized the answer is simple. It is not to most consumers benefit to mount an expensive uphill legal battle against copy protection in order to improve the video quality of their movie experience. Most, if not all, would rather either pay the extra money to buy a new tv that has compatible inputs for their dvd player, or live with the inferior quality. On the other hand, the MPAA has massive legal resources with which to sway legislation and the courts to allow such defective copy protection schemes to coninue. In such a system, the consumer always loses.
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These are just three examples of ways I, the consumer will be hurt by the enactment of this legislation. I therefore urge you to not enact this legislation as it is written. At the very least the issues that I have brought to your attention should be taken into account when debating or amending the legislation. I would of course prefer that the whole bill be eliminated since it is such a gross violation of my fair use rights. If as my elected official, you need more information regarding this issue before you act, I refer you to the following sources:

http://www.stopdmca.com
Stop The Digital Millenium Copyright act

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=105_cong_bills&docid=f:h2281enr.txt.pdf
The full text of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act

http://www.eff.org/
The Electronic Frontier Foundation

http://www.dfc.org/
The Digital Future Coalition

http://chronicle.com/free/2000/10/2000103101t.htm
The Chronicle Daily News article "New Interpretation of Digital-Copyright Provision Disappoints Scholars"

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Stop the Digital Millenium Copyright Act ( DMCA ) Petition to The House of Represenatives and other applicable legislative bodies was created by Consumers of Copyrighted media and written by Gabriel Ramuglia.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no express or implied endorsement of this petition by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. The petition scripts are created by Mike Wheeler at Artifice, Inc.  For Technical Support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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