more on Summerized -- Mossberg: Media Companies Go Too Far in Curbing Consumers' Activities

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: TClaburn () cmp com
Date: October 20, 2005 11:10:25 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Summerized -- Mossberg: Media Companies Go Too Far  
in Curbing Consumers' Activities


I agree wholeheartedly with Walter Mossberg, though I believe he  
misses the mark
on this point:

"I believe Congress should rewrite the copyright laws to carve out a  
broad
exemption for personal, noncommercial use by consumers, including  
sharing small
numbers of copies among families."

While it would be helpful to have fair use codified, consumers  
already have
these rights in theory. But they cannot exercise them because of  
technical
protection methods/digital rights management.

If the law is to be of assistance here, it needs to limit DRM. And  
that's not
likely to happen until Congress revisits the Digital Millennium  
Copyright Act,
which prohibits the circumvention of DRM technology. As Lawrence  
Lessig has
suggested, code is law.

Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek
http://www.lot49.com



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