Free Culture @ NYU

Lobbying over HR 1201…

Friday, 12.02.2005  –  Category: Meta

Joe Gratz posts a great criticism of the Property Rights Alliance’s “policy brief” regarding HR 1201, the bill set to reform the DMCA so that consumers can legally circumvent DRM in cases where they are excercising their fair use rights. These Property Rights Alliance people don’t really seem to understand fair-use as they think it harms the consumer:

“Under the semblance of fairness, it is difficult to oppose a measure that is presented to enhance consumer rights and provide individuals with greater access to media technology. However, “fair use,” the term often identified with the right to use certain copyrighted intellectual property without permission from or payment to the patent holder, is deceptive rhetoric that masks the real effects of this term. Fair use is inherently perverse to patent holders, intellectual property corporations, and most importantly, to the American consumer.”

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I assume this “policy brief” is meant to be presented as some kind of executive summary to politicians who are looking at HR 1201. I’m not really sure if we should be scared or elated about this — the brief gets fair-use so wrong its almost funny, but you have to worry that the politicians who aren’t immediately familiar with fair-use (probably most of them, right?) will take this PRA brief seriously. Just keeping an eye on the other side…