Please excuse the inevitable cross postings.
Margaret Webster
Member, ARLIS/NA Public Policy Committee
>Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 11:34:20 -0400
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>Subject: COPYRIGHT: Rep. Boucher Statement: "Pay-Per-Use Society One Step
> Closer"
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>NINCH ANNOUNCEMENT
>News on Networking Cultural Heritage Resources
>from across the Community
>October 27, 2000
>
>
> "PAY-PER-USE" SOCIETY ONE STEP CLOSER
> Statement of Congressman Rick Boucher on "Anti-circumvention" Rulemaking
>
>
>>Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 10:22:15 -0400
>>From: "Ruth Rodgers" <[log in to unmask]>
>>To: Digital Future Coalition Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
>>Subject: [DFCLIST:28] Rep. Boucher's statement on 1201
>>
>>Thought you all might be interested in seeing this.
>
>News from Congressman Rick Boucher
>2329 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515
>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>October 27,
>2000
>CONTACT:Sharon Ringley (202) 225-3861
>
>Statement of Congressman Rick Boucher
>
>"PAY-PER-USE" SOCIETY ONE STEP CLOSER
>I regret the decision of the Librarian of Congress, acting upon the
>recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, to reject the
>recommendations of the Administration, concerned Members of Congress,
>universities and libraries in announcing a decision that does not protect
>traditional fair use rights. This disappointing decision has moved our
>Nation one step closer to a "pay-per-use" society that threatens to
>advance the narrow interests of copyright owners over the broader public
>interest of information consumers.
>In crafting section 1201(a)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
>Congress sought to preserve the principle of "fair use" that has served
>our Nation so well for more than a century. Unfortunately, based on the
>advice of the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian of Congress today
>announced his decision to limit the ability of ordinary consumers in most
>cases to circumvent electronic security measures for the purpose of
>exercising their non-infringing fair use rights. Consequently, any person
>who circumvents a technological protection measure to gain access to
>information to which he has a fair use right will be guilty of a crime.
>
>I was heartened recently when the National Telecommunications and
>Information Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce, speaking
>for the Administration, so forcefully articulated the importance of
>preserving fair use principles in the 21st century. NTIA made useful
>recommendations to the Register of Copyrights for implementing section
>1201(a)(1) in a manner which would have protected fair use rights. For a
>moment, it appeared that the rulemaking might advance the interests of
>information consumers. Those hopes have now been dashed.
>
>As NTIA recognized in its letter, one of the foremost concerns reflected
>in the Congressional report upon passage of the DMCA was that changes in
>the law could chill the exercise of consumersı traditional "fair use"
>rights, and move us all toward a "pay-per-use" society. Congress
>recognized that some limits had to be placed on the anti-circumvention
>provisions of the DMCA to ensure that librarians, educators, the
>scientific community, and other information consumers could continue to
>gain legitimate access to a variety of works likely to be protected
>through the use of technological measures. Section 1201(a)(1) was,
>therefore, included to exempt from the prohibition on circumvention
>"persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular
>class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be . . . adversely
>affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to make
>non-infringing uses of that particular class of works ..." The Librarian
>was charged by the statute with defining the classes of works likely to be
>at risk.
>
>Under this grant of authority, it should have been possible to exempt, for
>example, copies of works purchased by universities and libraries when
>their students or patrons subsequently seek to make non-infringing fair
>use of those works. Unfortunately, the announced exceptions to the rule
>are so narrow as to be practically meaningless. Fair use is not protected.
>
>There is little doubt that the 107th Congress will consider proposed
>revisions to the DMCA. Given the importance of fair use to society as a
>whole, my hope is that Congress will re-calibrate the DMCA to balance more
>evenly the interests of copyright owners and information consumers. With
>todayıs failure of the Library of Congress to protect the publicıs fair
>use rights, Congress in its next session should act to prevent the
>creation of a "pay per use" society, in which what is available today on
>the library shelf for free is available in the future only upon payment of
>a fee for each use.
>
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