Help Limit the Digital Millenium Copyright Act

This post is for my US readers, so for all of you outside our borders, my apologies. You can disregard this (or not, if you’re of that kind of mind).

I’m not one to push my political agenda, and certainly not on my blog, but some things just call for it. This issue hits home for a lot of us, I think.

There’s a bill on the Hill, HR 1201, which will limit the very evil Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). It’s called DMCRA, or Digital Media Consumer’s Rights Act, and it removes the copy protection circumvention powers when it comes to fair use acts. The DMCA is just flat-out bad for our country… so use this handy EFF form and contact your representative. They will ascertain who to contact based on your address, and they even provide a form letter urging reps to support the bill.

But, judging from my experience in DC, interns and lackeys who read the majority of senators’ email don’t give two hoots about form letters. Take 5 minutes, stand out, and write your own. If you need some inspiration, here’s what I wrote. And yes, it’s a bit cheesy, but these folks don’t have the same sense of humor that we do.

Note: I don’t like the EFF’s example of “backing up DVDs,” because it reeks of piracy. Who really backs up their movies? Just about nobody. The other things, on the other hand…

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I’m one of your constituents, and I’m writing to urge you to support the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act or DMCRA (HR 1201).

This bill will limit the DMCA, which makes it criminal for people to circumvent copy protection for legal things such as academic research into copy protection and cryptography, using screen readers, printing documents they purchased, backing up music purchased online, and so on. These are fair and fundamental uses for things which we have legally paid for, and they should not be illegal under any circumstances!

The founding fathers clearly thought that the copyright and patent controls should be limited, and I agree, even though I make my living creating things which are copyrighted (designs, books, art, code!) which could in theory be “ripped off” and destroy my livelihood. There are things which are more important than the potential loss of a small amount of revenue, and one of those things is the right of individuals to modify and secure their legal property. And the right to investigate and study technologies which shape the world (see the story of Dmitri Skylarov for an example of an academic researcher being attacked, and jailed, for fair use behavior).

I believe that this country was one made for the people, not the corporations. I believe that capitalism is the best economic system in the world, and I think that it’s clear that this kind of corporate protectionism does nothing to aid capitalism, and even undermines it.

Please endorse HR 1201 and bring rights back to us, the people.

And for clarification, I think capitalism plus free health care is the best system in the world (when it’s actually capitalism; what we have now isn’t any more), but I chose not to push that particular button.

No Comments

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