Digital 'Fair Use' Bill Introduced In Congress

The Washington Post ^ | 2/27/07 | Frank Ahrens

[steve-b]

Today, Reps. Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) introduced what they call the "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship" (or FAIR USE) Act they say will make it easier for digital media consumers to use the content they buy....

[rit]

tech list ping?

[ShadowAce]

[SmithL]

good

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Looks like it doesn't go nearly far enough:

Review of Digital Fair Use Bill At ArsTechnica

"Yet again, the bill does not appear to deliver on what most observers want: clear protection for making personal use copies of encrypted materials. There is no allowance for consumers to make backups of DVDs, to strip encryption from music purchased online so that it can be played anywhere, or to generally do any of the things that the DMCA made illegal in one fell swoop."

[Gil4]

What's the catch?

[Sender]

I am pretty frustrated with DRM. For example, I purchased a pretty extensive music library from Napster. I bought it. Now I've networked my house and I'm supposed to have access to my music elsewhere, such as on my Tivo. Yet it just says "you have no playable music files" because the DRM license apparently doesn't transfer to my bedroom. Also I can't take those same music files that I purchased and play them on my PC at work...I have to carry them loaded on my MP3 player. I suspect that with Windows Vista and future copyright technologies it will only get worse. Maybe we'll download "play one time only" files that self destruct.

[Yo-Yo]

Congress can pass all the laws they want, but that isn't going to make digital rights management just "go away."

Once you can copy a file for fair use, you can copy it for unfair use too.

[Quix]

Worth supporting, imho.

[Jim Noble]

Rick Boucher has been all over this since it began.

[KoRn]

"Rick Boucher has been all over this since it began."

Good to see Boucher doing this, and being on the right side of the issue over the years.

[Kevmo]

thanks for the ping, this is something I want to follow, bump for later reading

[antiRepublicrat]

It's watered down from the previous try that the copyright cartel would not allow its employees congressmen to vote for. It apparently does nothing more than codify the painfully few exceptions that were allowed by the Library of Congress.

[Myrddin]

DRM is the reason I don't waste money on downloads. If I really want the music, I'll pay for a CD from the store and rip it as I see fit. If the time comes when I can't do that, I will just stop buying altogether. It's just not that important. There are more interesting things that are worthy of my hard earned money.

My wife paid for the Vcast feature on her Verizon cellphone. It locks you into only downloading from Verizon. Y can't put music on or take it off. I won't be patronizing that feature of Verizon either.

[Tree of Liberty]

Maybe we'll download "play one time only" files that self destruct.

Microsoft's Zune operates in a similar fashion for files sent between Zunes. They can only be played three times, or stored for three days (whichever comes first) before the file goes dead on the recipients player.

[TechJunkYard]

Stream it. Buy the music on CD, rip into MP3 files and use streaming audio techniques to get it where you want to play it.

I'd stream talk radio programs into my office because I couldn't get an AM radio to work inside the building. I hooked a transistor radio to the sound card of one of my computers at home and streamed it out.

[sauropod]

review

[Sender]

My music that was ripped from CDs will stream across to the Tivo system, but the Napster music will not. I can't even view the titles. I will keep looking for a fix.

[steve-b]

Can the other music be burned to CDs?

[Sender]

The files are there and they can probably be burned to CD, but I doubt that they would be playable. Thanks to the wonders of digital rights management.