Colette Vogele at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society provides a short summary of the important features of the new FAIR Use Act, Support the Fair Use Act | Stanford Center for Internet and Society [beta site], as well as links to sites that allow you to register your support.
Hope springs eternal...
In a very nicely written article on the importance of one of the Copyright Office's recent DMCA exemptions, Law.com - Copyright Law Gives Mobile Users New Freedom With Legally Unlocked Cell Phones, the authors, Timothy Meece and Aseet Patel, do a fine job of explaining why the Copyright Office was persuaded to allow users to circumvent the DMCA to unlock their cell phones to connect to a rival's network. But the article seems to me to be missing its last paragraph...
It fails to point out that while it may now be legal to circumvent this particular technological lock (for the next 2 years and 9 or so months), it is still illegal to make or distribute the means of doing so. So, unless the cell phone user knows how to unlock his or her phone without resort to third party tools, the ability to circumvent would seem to be a bit hollow, sort of like an empty promise (which leads one to question the whole exemption process, but that's another story).
The authors should have made at least some mention of this serious problem with the way the law works, or explained why continuing liability for making and distributing devices to exercise this right would not be a problem in this case. I'm certainly wondering how to unlock my phone without anyone else's help. Is this something everyone (but me) knows how to do?
If you are following the story about Viacom's notices alleging massive infringement of copyrights on YouTube, you may be reading about it from many different angles. John Palfrey from the Berkman Center at Harvard is particularly interested in the issue of the chilling effect that notices have on fair uses and has referenced this and other issues involved in the Viacom action in a recent post, Another Video for the Put-Back-Up List?.
For more information on this subject, visit The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, and read, "Will Fair Use Survive? Free Expression in the Age of Copyright Control," by Marjorie Heins and Tricia Beckles. This is a Brennan Center report detailing the chilling effects of the notice and take-down procedure.
The Chilling Effects Clearinghouse is collecting evidence to further document the negative effects of the notice and take-down procedure. Viacom's 100,000 notices are sure to add many stories to the list. Whether it will be enough to prompt changes in the law is another thing, however. That process itself is extremely difficult. When Congress revisits an existing law -- everyone who has any problem with it can take that opportunity to urge amendments. Just as users and ISPs have their concerns with the law, content owners are unhappy about some aspects of the law as well, so opening it up to change could be a risky proposition for all.
