IP: Stewart Baker on Sen. Biden's digital rights management bill

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

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From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>


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http://www.steptoe.com/WebDoc.nsf/LawNet-Main/Main
   A little-noticed anticounterfeiting bill has suddenly blossomed
   into a potentially sweeping digital rights management tool. The
   bill, S. 2395, originally tinkered with existing statutory
   provisions that outlaw counterfeiting of the tokens, including
   holograms, that are used by software producers to guarantee the
   authenticity of CDs containing valuable programs. The original
   version of S. 2395 simply updated existing law to include other
   authentication features. But in markup on July 18, the Senate
   Judiciary committee greatly expanded the bill. It now covers
   movies, music, and other consumer products; it allows content
   owners to bring private suits against violators and to collect up
   to $25,000 in automatic damages for each violation; and it expands
   the scope of the law to cover not just tokens but also digital
   features used by content owners to make sure that copies are not
   infringing in any way the intellectual property rights of the
   owners.



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