Much thanks to roomy Nick for this link so that I could take action and make my representive in the government know that I want them to support the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act (DMCRA, HR 1201).
Here’s some things The Electronic Frontier Foundation has to say about the bill:
HR 1201 would give citizens the right to circumvent copy-protection measures as long as what they’re doing is otherwise legal. For example, it would make sure that when you buy a CD, whether it is copy-protected or not, you can record it onto your computer and move the songs to an MP3 player. It would also protect a computer science professor who needs to bypass copy-protection to evaluate encryption technology.
In addition, the bill would codify the Betamax defense, which has been under attack by the entertainment industry through the “Induce Act� last year and the MGM v. Grokster case currently before the Supreme Court. This kind of sanity would be a welcome change to our copyright law.
So whatcha waiting for? Act now.
Like Edmund Burke ‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’.