MISC> Public Asks Copyright Office to Allow Common CD/DVD Uses, Electronic Frontier Foundation Encourages Public Comments
- From: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: NetHappenings <nethappenings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 11:12:29 -0600
**************************************************************
Net Happenings - From Educational CyberPlayGround
**************************************************************
Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release
For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 20, 2003
Contact:
Gwen Hinze
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
gwen@xxxxxxx
+1 415 436-9333 x110 (office)
Ren Bucholz
Activist
Electronic Frontier Foundation
ren@xxxxxxx
+1 415 436-9333 x121 (office)
Public Asks Copyright Office to Allow Common CD/DVD Uses
Electronic Frontier Foundation Encourages Public Comments
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
today announced that it helped 245 consumers submit
comments to the Librarian of Congress and the U.S.
Copyright Office requesting protection for certain ordinary
uses of CDs and DVDs.
The consumer comments supported the EFF's December 18
request that the Librarian of Congress and the U.S.
Copyright Office grant four exemptions to the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in order to permit bypassing
of certain technological protection measures for copyrighted works.
Currently, the DMCA prevents users from making the
following four uses of some digital media:
(1) Listening to copy-protected music CDs on certain
stereos and personal computers
(2) Viewing foreign movies on DVDs on US players due to
region-coding restrictions
(3) Skipping through commercials on some movie DVDs
(4) Viewing and making fair uses of movies that are in the
public domain and released on encrypted DVDs
The commenters described their difficulties with the DMCA's
ban on bypassing technological locks on copy-protected
music CDs and movies released on DVD:
* 55 comments described problems people had experienced
with copy-protected CDs, ranging from inability to play
music that they had purchased to complete computer
operating system crashes requiring major computer repair.
* 130 comments focused on problems playing foreign movies
on region-coded DVDs. One person originally from Denmark
expressed sadness and frustration at not being able to play
movies his mother gave him. Others discussed special
interest works, such as anime, and foreign movies that are
only available outside of the United States, but unplayable
on U.S. DVD players.
* Many parents wrote comments describing their concerns
about unskippable commercials and promotional material in a
number of Disney movies released on DVD.
* Several people also expressed frustration about the
limited use that could be made of particular public domain
movies, such as Charlie Chaplin's Movie Marathon, which was
released on a CSS-encrypted DVD.
"The large number of comments reflects consumers' growing
concerns about the DMCA and the very real impact that the
law has on their lives," said EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze.
"These EFF-inspired comments alone count for more than the
total number of comments the Copyright Office received
during the previous rulemaking in 2000," added EFF Activist
Ren Bucholz. "We're hopeful that the Copyright Office will
listen to the growing public voice demanding reasonable
uses of their own CDs and DVDs."
For this release:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20030220_1201_pr.php
Copyright Office website, including posted comments:
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/
EFF comments to Librarian of Congress and U.S. Copyright
Office:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20021218_eff_dmca_reply_comments.html
EFF volunteers special thank-you page:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20030220_1201_thanks.php
About EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at
http://www.eff.org/
**************************************************************
The Net Happenings mailing list is a service of
Educational CyberPlayGround - http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/
**************************************************************
If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or
would like to sponsor the Net Happenings service -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/Subguidelines.html>
Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Change Email Preferences -
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/NetHappenings.html>
**************************************************************
Other related posts:
- » MISC> Public Asks Copyright Office to Allow Common CD/DVD Uses, Electronic Frontier Foundation Encourages Public Comments
