jfcarbel
3rd March 2007, 09:06
Here was my comments that I sent:
Sen Boucher is pushing thru a new bill that suggests fair use addendums to the DMCA, but further research into this bill
see here:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070228-8942.html
shows that these are mere symbolic statements. This is very disappointing since Boucher was a big advocate for Fair Use changes to DMCA. His bill does make DMCA fair use exceptions for very special cases, but then their is no addendum to the DMCA for fair use. Thus the teachers, parents, blind users needing sofware tools for fair use will not get them because with no changes to DMCA, software developers would be breaking the law.
I am a software developer just waiting to develop a fair use tool, but I can't unless someone does something about this DMCA. His bill does not take into account the tons of people who wish to take a legally purchased movie or audio CD and reencode that content for other portable devices (iPod etc). Software products allowing this are now illegal and the MPAA has shown that they will go after anyone no matter how legit your business plan is. See Link below:
http://news.com.com/Movie+studios+sue+DVD-to-iPod+service/2100-1030_3-6136806.html
So something needs to be done about this DMCA which is inhibiting new business innovation. Remember the MPAA is the same company that said the VCR would be the end of their business and now its a multi-million dollar business for them.
Sen Boucher is pushing thru a new bill that suggests fair use addendums to the DMCA, but further research into this bill
see here:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070228-8942.html
shows that these are mere symbolic statements. This is very disappointing since Boucher was a big advocate for Fair Use changes to DMCA. His bill does make DMCA fair use exceptions for very special cases, but then their is no addendum to the DMCA for fair use. Thus the teachers, parents, blind users needing sofware tools for fair use will not get them because with no changes to DMCA, software developers would be breaking the law.
I am a software developer just waiting to develop a fair use tool, but I can't unless someone does something about this DMCA. His bill does not take into account the tons of people who wish to take a legally purchased movie or audio CD and reencode that content for other portable devices (iPod etc). Software products allowing this are now illegal and the MPAA has shown that they will go after anyone no matter how legit your business plan is. See Link below:
http://news.com.com/Movie+studios+sue+DVD-to-iPod+service/2100-1030_3-6136806.html
So something needs to be done about this DMCA which is inhibiting new business innovation. Remember the MPAA is the same company that said the VCR would be the end of their business and now its a multi-million dollar business for them.