AfterDawn: News

There has been alot of debate on numerous aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ever since it was passed. Now the Library of Congress' Copyright Office will hold a series of public hearings to decide if changes should be made to the DMCA. Namely the section that prohibits bypassing copy-protection schemes.

The anticircumvention restrictions of the DMCA can prohibit users from accessing work they have purchased. E.g. reverse engineering the DVD CSS encryption is illegal, so DVDs can only be viewed under the platforms accepted by the DVD Consortium. Bypassing DVD region coding, backing up copy protected DVDs or CDs, or even skipping advertisements on DVDs is forbidden by the law.



According to the announcement from Copyright Office anyone who has something to say about DMCA can submit a request to be heard by April 1st. The hearings will be held in Washington D.C. on Apr. 11, Apr. 15, Apr. 30, and May 2. There will also be hearings in California, but the dates have not been set yet.

The Copyright Office is looking forward to hearing not only legal arguments, but also testimonies from people who can shed a light on more practical aspects of the problems caused by DMCA.

Source:
News.com

Written by: Jari Ketola @ 21 Mar 2003 14:20