Personal Technology Freedom Coalition formed to oppose DMCA DRM p rovision

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Wong, Brian" <brianwong () dwt com>
Date: June 22, 2004 1:02:18 PM EDT
To: "'David J. Farber (dave () farber net)'" <dave () farber net>
Subject: Personal Technology Freedom Coalition formed to oppose DMCA  
DRM p rovision

Dave, FYI.

- Brian -



Tech heavies support challenge to copyright law
Last modified: June 21, 2004, 7:26 PM PDT
By Declan McCullagh
 Staff Writer, CNET News.com
The copyright cold war between Hollywood and Silicon Valley is about to  
heat up.
Skirmishes between content-producing companies seeking expansive  
copyright protections and hardware and telecommunications corporations  
on the other side have resulted in a legislative deadlock on Capitol  
Hill.

 Some of the most influential technology companies are planning to  
announce on Tuesday an alliance that they hope will end the impasse.  
Called the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition, its purpose is to  
coordinate lobbying efforts in opposition--at least initially--to the  
most controversial section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

 Currently, that controversial section of the DMCA broadly says no one  
may bypass a copy-protection scheme or distribute any product that is  
"primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing" copy  
protection. The movie industry, record labels and many software  
publishers are fiercely protective of that section of the law, saying  
that digital rights management, or DRM, systems backed up by the law  
are necessary to reduce piracy.

 But members of the nascent coalition, including Intel, Sun  
Microsystems, Verizon Communications, SBC, Qwest, Gateway and  
BellSouth, are lending their support to a proposal by Rep. Rick  
Boucher, D-Va., to rewrite that part of the DMCA. Boucher's bill says  
that descrambling utilities can be distributed, and copy protection can  
be circumvented as long as no copyright infringement is taking place.

 <SNIP>
Other members of the coalition include: Philips Consumer Electronics  
North America, the Consumer Electronics Association, the American  
Library Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Consumers  
Union, the Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, the  
American Foundation for the Blind, the United States Telecom  
Association, and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.

 Boucher's bill, called the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act, would  
also grant the Federal Trade Commission new authority to regulate  
copy-protected compact discs. It gives FTC bureaucrats the power to  
police music sales by ensuring that copy-protected discs are labeled as  
such and are not simply called "CDs," which could be misleading to  
consumers. Such labels would have to say that the copy-protected discs  
might not play properly in standard CD players, and that they might not  
be recordable on PCs or other devices that can record standard CDs.

 U.S. record labels have been slower than their European and Asian  
counterparts to add copy locks to releases in the American market,  
fearful of consumer backlash and complaints about incompatibility. But  
the top seller in last week's stores, the debut album by hard rock act  
Velvet Revolver, was wrapped in antipiracy technology.

 <SNIP>
http://news.com.com/Tech+heavies+support+challenge+to+copyright+law/ 
2100-1028_3-5242774.html?tag=nefd.top

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