Press Releases: October, 2003
Librarian of Congress Fails Public Interest in Copyright Regulation
Ignores Fair Uses of DVDs and CDs
Washington, DC - The Librarian of Congress today continued
to disregard consumers' rights and denied exemptions to
copyright law related to consumers' use of CDs and DVDs that
they legally purchase.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) had urged the
Register of Copyrights and the Librarian of Congress to
grant exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA) ban on circumventing technological locks that
prevent consumers from fully enjoying the digital media that
they own. These digital locks, technically known as "digital
rights management" systems, limit how consumers can play and
view their CDs and DVDs.
Specifically, EFF had asked the Copyright Office to allow
consumers to:
- Play copy-protected audio CDs that malfunction to prevent
playback - View foreign region-coded DVD movies on U.S. players
- Fast-forward through unskippable commercials prior to
movies on DVDs - Play and make full use of public domain movies on DVDs
"Consumers are the real losers in today's ruling, because
the Librarian of Congress is ignoring the rights of nearly
everyone who has purchased CDs and DVDs," said EFF Staff
Attorney Gwen Hinze. "We're disappointed that the Copyright
Office and the Librarian of Congress did not recognize the
significant impact that the DMCA is having on millions of
consumers' ability to make reasonable uses of digital
media they've purchased."
"Although the exemptions granted by the Librarian of
Congress are important, today's ruling just underscores
the need for legislative reform of the DMCA to restore
the balance in U.S. Copyright law," commented EFF Senior
Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann.
The Copyright Office did grant exemptions for the following
activities:
- Decoding lists of Web pages or directories blocked by
Internet filtering software, also known as censorware. EFF
Pioneer Award recipient Seth Finkelstein was instrumental in
lobbying for censorware exemptions to the DMCA for each U.S.
Copyright Office rulemaking period. - Circumventing obsolete digital rights management devices
called dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or
damage. The Internet Archive requested this exemption. - Accessing computer programs and video games distributed
in obsolete formats. The Internet Archive requested this
exemption. - Accessing ebooks for which the publisher has disabled the
read-aloud function or the ability to use screen readers to
render the text into a specialized format, such as Braille
for access by the blind. The American Foundation for the
Blind and five major library associations requested this
exemption.
Links:
- Ruling of the Copyright Office
- Comments and testimony to the Copyright Office
- Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA
Contact:
Fred von Lohmann
Senior Intellectual Property Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Gwen Hinze
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
gwen@eff.org
EFF on MIT's LAMP Music System
MIT today announced an innovative solution aimed at giving students an alternative to swapping music online. Built around the existing on-campus cable television infrastructure, it relies on a blanket licensing approach that offers a possible model for solving the Internet file-sharing dilemma.
More RIAA Lawsuits
The recording industry has started the second round of its campaign against American music fans by sending letters threatening them with lawsuits and offering to discuss settlement. "The record companies still aren't listening to their fans; instead of continuing their litigation crusade, the labels should give their customers the option to pay a reasonable fee to continue file-sharing," said EFF Staff
Attorney Wendy Seltzer.
ISP Rejects Diebold Copyright Claims Against News Website
EFF Defends Right to Publish Links to Electronic Voting Memos
San Francisco - Defending the right to link to controversial
information about flaws in electronic voting systems, EFF
announced today it will defend an Internet Service Provider
(ISP) and a news website publisher against claims of
indirect copyright infringement from the electronic voting
machines' manufacturer.
SunnComm Backs Down
CD copy-protection vendor SunnComm Technologies has said that it will not sue J. Alex Halderman under the DMCA for publishing a paper that disclosed weaknesses in the company's latest MediaMax protection technology. The final concession comes after a week of off-again, on-again threats against the Princeton computer science graduate student. EFF had offered to represent Mr. Halderman if SunnComm made good on its earlier litigation threats.
Electronic Frontier Foundation Defends Alleged Filesharer
Another Error in Record Companies' Legal Crusade
Los Angeles, California - EFF today announced that it will
defend Ross Plank of Playa Del Rey, California, against a
wrongly filed complaint, among the 261 copyright
infringement lawsuits the recording industry has filed
against individuals.
EFF on SunnComm's Threat Against Princeton Student
CD copy-protection vendor, SunnComm Technologies Inc., today threatened to sue Princeton graduate student J. Alex Halderman for publishing a paper that reveals that simply holding down the shift key can defeat its latest copy-protection technology.
Princeton Researcher Debunks Copy Protection, Again
Princeton computer science student Alex Halderman has released a paper describing a one-click method to bypass the "copy protection" on the recently released Anthony Hamilton CD from BMG. "Halderman's paper illustrates exactly who's hurt by copy protections: the ordinary user, who can't move tracks to his iPod without going to KaZaA to get the music he has already paid for," said EFF Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer.
EFF Welcomes Suspension of VeriSign's SiteFinder Service
EFF welcomed the suspension of VeriSign's SiteFinder service today,
after a formal request from ICANN. "We're pleased that ICANN has
finally found the will to stand up for the clear interests of
Internet users, to stop VeriSign's interference with their network
traffic," said Staff Attorney Wendy Seltzer. Staff Technologist Seth
Schoen adds "VeriSign complains ICANN gave it no hearing -- yet
VeriSign gave no hearing to the Internet community before adopting
Site Finder, and still seems deaf to public concerns."
EFF Analysis on Trusted Computing
EFF today released its analysis of Trusted Computing, supporting some of the security proposals while criticizing those that take control away from computer owners. "Helping computer owners defend their computers against attacks is progress in computer security, but treating computer owners themselves as the bad guys is not," said EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen. "Security architectures must be designed to put the computer owner's interests first, not to lock the owner into the plans of others."
EFF Commentary on Coleman hearings
At Congressional hearings yesterday, the RIAA announced that it was ceasing its campaign of "sue first and ask questions later" in its crusade against American filesharers and would begin to write letters first before launching litigation.
