Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Repeal a bad law

Help repeal the DMCA, see EFF site. Support H.R.1201 -aka DMCRA

Have you ever ben playing a DVD, and the previews come on, and you try to fast forard through them, but you can't? This is because the movie companies set certain permissions on the disc, and the law says that the DVD player has to honor them. It is effectively illegal to make a DVD player that fast forwards through these ads.
Under copyright law, you have 'fair use' rights to copy works. for example quoting an excerpt from a book. Most copy-prevention systems ignore this, and because it is illegal to circumvent them, these systems hinder the rights of consumers.

If you've just crawled out from under a rock, you might not be aware of the Sony rootkit fiasco. H.R. 1201 would also force record companies to label CD's that use copy protection.

Finally, H.R.1201 would establish a legal standard that creators of software are not responsible for copyright by it's users. (In the same way the makers of VCR's should not be held responsible for bootleg movies.)

H.R. 1201 is an important reform.

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