<a href=”http://twitter.com/CopyrightLaw/statuses/21787458513″ target=”_blank”>Michael Scott</a> points us to an fascinating blog advertise by code professor Tim Armstrong <a href=”http://blogs.code.harvard.edu/infolaw/2010/08/20/is-the-dmca-still-controversial/” target=”_blank”>wondering if the DMCA is still controversial</a>, noting that while many of the largest fears associated with the DMCA when it was first passed <i>did</i>, in circumstance, come fair, many of them were divide back by court decisions that limited the interpretations of the DMCA away from the most perilous ones.
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Dire predictions followed about how the DMCA would restrict honest employ, distort competition, erode privacy, and jeopardize academic research. In the early years of the statute’s existence, these predictions appeared to be fully justified: the DMCA was invoked to <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_v._Reimerdes”>attack a DVD player</a> for the Linux operating system; to <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._ElcomSoft_and_Sklyarov”>imprison a Russian programmer</a> transiently present in the United States based on conduct that was lawful in Russia where it occurred, and to <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Felten#The_SDMI_challenge”>harass and threaten an American machine scientist</a> in an attempt to deter him from publishing his academic research, among other things. Cases like these appeared to substantiate the view that the DMCA had fundamentally upset the historical balance between the rights of owners and the rights of users of copyrighted works.
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I can’t aid noticing, however, that since the high-aqua mark of 2001 or thereabouts, the progression of developments under the DMCA has nearly uniformly been in the direction of recognizing greater rights for users and fewer rights for copyright owners.<span id=”more-1022″></span> The courts have been <a href=”http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-federal-circuit/1104584.html”>rebuffing</a> <a href=”http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int%27l_v._Static_Control_Components/Opinion_of_the_Court”>efforts</a> to employ the DMCA as a tool to impede competition, and content producers seem to be <a href=”http://blogs.code.harvard.edu/infolaw/2008/03/04/is-the-dmca-still-relevant/”>relying less and less</a> on the types of DRM technologies that were at issue in the early wave of cases.
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He notes some more recent court cases, and the circumstance that the Library of Congress is finally <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100726/09564610361.shtml”>approving consumer-friendly DMCA exemptions</a>.
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I don’t acquire it, however. There is still plenty that is highly controversial about the DMCA, and the circumstance that producers are relying less and less on DRM doesn’t fix the massive problems that the code has made with its anti-circumvention provisions, that still constitute perfectly non-infringing activities illegal for no excellent cause at all. Separately, there’s a <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100623/1333269937.shtml”>rather vital lawsuit</a> going on fair immediately questioning the limits of the DMCA’s safe harbors, which could have tremendous chilling effects on internet services if the district court’s ruling is not upheld. And while it may be amusing that some of the DMCA’s largest supporters are immediately <a href=”http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100824/00341310747.shtml”>complaining</a> about the aspects they don’t like, that doesn’t constitute the overall code any less controversial for those who feel that it has always been a massive and perilous overreach.
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Unfortunately, it does seem like most human beings have accepted that the DMCA will not be fixed any age soon, however to claim that things are fine and dandy since we avoided the worst of the worst, seems to miss outside on many of the ongoing concerns.<br /><br /><a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100823/03145510728.shtml”>Permalink</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/articles/20100823/03145510728.shtml#comments”>Comments</a> | <a href=”http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20100823/03145510728&op=sharethis”>Email This Tale</a><br />
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