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Seth Finkelstein | 1 Dec 2002 13:16
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Fwd - IT: How To Win (DMCA) Exemptions And Influence Policy

 Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 12:02:34 -0500
 From: Seth Finkelstein
 To: Seth Finkelstein's InfoThought list
 Subject: IT: How To Win (DMCA) Exemptions And Influence Policy

   Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 08:07:11 -0800
   From: Lee Tien
   Subject: guide to DMCA "exemption" process -- 3 weeks left
   To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications

EFF is pleased to present a guide to the DMCA "exemption" process.

http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/finkelstein_on_dmca.html

Under this process, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress 
must make a triennial inquiry regarding adverse effects of the DMCA's 
prohibition on circumvention on "certain classes of works."

If adverse effects are shown, the office can "exempt certain classes 
of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological 
measures that control access to copyrighted works."  The exemptions 
only last 3 years.

The author, Seth Finkelstein, is one of the very few people who 
succeeded in arguing for an exemption (for the act of circumventing 
access/copy controls on censorware blacklists) in the last round 
(2000).  [The Copyright Office received many comments and rejected 
the overwhelming majority of them; I think in the end only 2 or 3 
exemptions were created.]
(Continue reading)

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James McGuigan | 2 Dec 2002 09:20

Re: [DMCA_Discuss] Ideas for DMCA Exemption Classes of Works

Not sure if anyone has given this much thought or not, but with the
semi-recent news about bio-chips which get implanted under the skin (for ID
or other purposes), while it hasn't become an issue yet, I can foresee the
DMCA being used to prevent people from reading / modifying the software that
is used in chips implanted in their own skin (assuming that the chips become
able to be reprogrammed without physical removal).

Personally I would have a very hard time letting someone put such a chip in
me unless the software being used was fully open-sourced and I also
understood exactly what it was doing and how I could edit it and be fully in
control of what I had in me - though chances are that if these things do
ever become popular, that a few of these chips might come pre-packaged, or
updated to do something other than in my best interests.

I can also foresee somewhat similar problems with nanotechnology if it ever
gets developed to a commercial level, though this I guess is really an
extension of your first point, which is the use of anti-circumvention of
software laws to limit the uses/functionality or to enforce controls on
computer hardware.

Another potential problem with a DMCA / DRM combo, though not sure how best
to describe the condition in a general sense, is for instance a case where a
company/government makes a public statement but using a 30-day view DRM so
that if they decided to contradict themselves a year down the line it would
be alot harder or even illegal to dig up the old records showing that this
was the case. AFAIK this hasn't happened yet, but in a big brother
scenario - remember those memory holes, every time you are finished with a
bit of paper you throw it in a memory hole, you can always get another copy
from the ministry of truth.
(Continue reading)

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Michael Richardson | 2 Dec 2002 15:32
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RE: [DMCA_Discuss] Ideas for DMCA Exemption Classes of Works

When such a thing comes into being it will not be voluntary for long (and
you will not have the choice of whether it is open-source or not). 

-----Original Message-----
From: James McGuigan [mailto:james <at> starsfaq.com]
Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 3:21 AM
To: C-FIT_Community <at> realmeasures.dyndns.org;
C-FIT_Release_Community <at> realmeasures.dyndns.org;
fairuse-discuss <at> nyfairuse.org; DMCA_Discuss <at> lists.microshaft.org;
DMCA-Activists <at> gnu.org; CYBERIA-L <at> LISTSERV.AOL.COM
Subject: Re: [DMCA_Discuss] Ideas for DMCA Exemption Classes of Works

Not sure if anyone has given this much thought or not, but with the
semi-recent news about bio-chips which get implanted under the skin (for ID
or other purposes), while it hasn't become an issue yet, I can foresee the
DMCA being used to prevent people from reading / modifying the software that
is used in chips implanted in their own skin (assuming that the chips become
able to be reprogrammed without physical removal).

Personally I would have a very hard time letting someone put such a chip in
me unless the software being used was fully open-sourced and I also
understood exactly what it was doing and how I could edit it and be fully in
control of what I had in me - though chances are that if these things do
ever become popular, that a few of these chips might come pre-packaged, or
updated to do something other than in my best interests.

I can also foresee somewhat similar problems with nanotechnology if it ever
gets developed to a commercial level, though this I guess is really an
extension of your first point, which is the use of anti-circumvention of
software laws to limit the uses/functionality or to enforce controls on
(Continue reading)

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Seth Finkelstein | 2 Dec 2002 17:03
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Re: Ideas for DMCA Exemption Classes of Works

>> Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 21:28:39 -0800 (PST)
>> From: Bryan Taylor <bryan_w_taylor <at> yahoo.com>
>
> I'm starting to brainstorm on my submission to the Copyright
> Office for exemptions to the 1201(a) anticircumvention ban.
>
> The EFF has a nice howto on making submissions that might
> actually influence things. It's quite valuable:
> http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/dmca_comments_howto.html

	Thanks! :-) (I'm the author :-) )

> Anyway, here are some of my ideas of classes of works to be
> exempted. THoughts and feedback are welcome.
> ...
> class of works 4: data sets, lists, databases, or other
> collections whose individual elements are public domain
> facts, not the original expression of the data set creator
> or licensing contributor thereto, or otherwise not
> copyrightable by the data set creator. Examples: the CDDB
> thing, the recent price list thing

	For this, it's critical to read what's been said before, and
to understand how the Librarian is viewing it. This came up
previously, in the 2002 rulemaking, and was rejected. I'm not saying
it can't be done. Rather, my point is that I believe the best chances
of success are in thoroughly understanding the framework used, and
putting forth the case within that reasoning. This isn't hard, but it
does mean sitting down and RTFM, taking care to write to the spec.
(Continue reading)

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horrorvacui | 2 Dec 2002 21:14
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Re: RE: [DMCA_Discuss] Ideas for DMCA Exemption Classes of Works

SHOULD such a thing ever come into being, anything else would hardly
matter. Do you really think it necessary to bring up a question that can
belong only to social and scientific science-fiction, in a forum
discussing concrete consequences of the very real situation of today? I
really don't want to be one of the "off-topic"-yelling polemics, but this
is really off-topic in that it's not even discutable. Mandatory
implantations of chips that fullfill an unclearly defined set of
functionalities would represent a violation of your physical integrity,
which is one of the most important human rights. Compared to such a
blatant violation of that gravity, what we're discussing here can only be
peanuts. What we're discussing here however is in which ways a real
legislation violates our (rather widely) agreed-upon human rights and how
to fight it; what you're talking about is a highly theoretical threat
that's quite petty compared to the prerequisites. As if you'd be warning
that when you're to be shot in the head, your speech centrum might be in
danger, while others are trying to make guns illegal.

You're perfectly right to make conjectures about possible future
violations of human rights, but that's science-fiction. If this kind of
science-fiction has no connection with the current situation, it doesn't
belong here. Discussing Orwell's 1984 here would be ok, discussing Borg is
not.

As for the matter with the self-destructing documents: yes, that is a
problem. It's about falsificating history, one of Orwell's main topics
(not only in 1984, read some of his essays from www.orwell.ru), and 1984
shows clearly the dangers of states having the power to falsificate it -
you can imagine how much more dangerous this becomes in the hands of
individuals or organisations. It's a good argument against DMCA/DRM,
provided it gets known widely that this combo could provide a mechanism to
(Continue reading)

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Ruben I Safir | 4 Dec 2002 14:35

Re: [DMCA_Discuss] (DC 7/17) NY Arena: Press Outreach Results, 12/3/02

New York for fair use has been busy working on Peer to Peer
activities

I have no idea what your talking about

On 2002.12.04 07:10 Seth Johnson wrote:
> 
> Press Outreach Results:
> 
> Tell the FCC to Serve the Public, Not Hollywood!
> Stop the Broadcast Flag Proposal at the FCC!
> 
> 
> 12/3/02:
> 
> 127 Alerts Deployed; 273 Public Comments Posted; 420 Total
> 
> 
> This past Thursday night, 11/28/02, New Yorkers for Fair Use
> executed a Press Outreach tactic targetting the FCC's
> Broadcast Flag proposal.  Over the Thanksgiving weekend, 3
> volunteers devoted 18 hours to deploying the NY Fair Use
> Action Alert (pasted below), calling concerned citizens to
> voice their opposition to this proposal.
> 
> >From August 8, the day the Broadcast Flag NPRM was posted,
> to November 26, the FCC had received 147 public comments. 
> There were 13 comments in August, 51 comments in September,
> 59 comments in October, and 24 comments through November
> 26.  Comments had been coming in at the rate of 5 posted
(Continue reading)

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Seth Finkelstein | 7 Dec 2002 16:37
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PCWorld - Digital Copyright Law Up for Challenge

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=1093&u=/pcworld/20021206/tc_pcworld/107751&printer=1

Digital Copyright Law Up for Challenge
Fri Dec 6, 6:00 PM ET

Michelle Madigan, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON--As the deadline approaches for public comment on the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (news - web sites),
experts are offering advice on how to persuade the feds to allow
exemptions that change access controls on digital media.

The Copyright Office is accepting comments on the law, which makes it
illegal to copy digital entertainment and imposes restrictions that
some users say violate their fair-use rights. A comment form is
available online and must be submitted by December 18.

The office received 235 comments in 2000 during the first review of
the DMCA, says Rob Kasunic, a senior attorney in the Copyright
Office. Congress mandated a review process every three years upon
approving the law in 1998. However, only two of those hundreds of
comments in 2000 resulted in new exemptions, Kasunic says.

Previous Success

Seth Finkelstein, a computer programmer from Cambridge, Massachusetts,
wrote one of those successful proposals. He targeted Internet
filtering programs that contain secret blacklists of Web sites the
software intends to block. The federal law prohibits circumventing the
encryption that hides the banned sites, and his request allowed access
(Continue reading)

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Weasel | 16 Dec 2002 17:35

Re: [DMCA_Discuss] ElcomSoft Jury Asks for Law Text, Judge Refuses

It is important to note that law interpretation is the judge's
responsibility, not the jury's. The jury is there to interpret the
evidence.

Anyone who has served on jury duty would have had this explained to them
quite clearly in orientation.

Now, the jury is in it's right to nulify the judge's interpretation by
finding the evidence inconclusive, whether it is or not.

------------------------------------------------
 "Great evils shall be committed upon humankind
  in the name of child saftey."
                                      -  Weasel
                                weasel <at> nmrc.org
------------------------------------------------

On Sat, 14 Dec 2002, Seth Johnson wrote:

>
> (Forwarded from Interesting People list.  Article text
> pasted below.  -- Seth)
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2002 10:29:41 -0500
> From: Dave Farber <dave <at> farber.net>
> To: ip <ip <at> v2.listbox.com>
>
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
(Continue reading)

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Rick Moen | 17 Dec 2002 03:19
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(forw) RIAA Maths with Hilary Rosen!

----- Forwarded message from Tim Norman <stormo <at> linuxgamers.net> -----

Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:18:16 +1100
From: Tim Norman <stormo <at> linuxgamers.net>
Subject: RIAA Maths with Hilary Rosen!
To: luv-talk <at> luv.asn.au
Organization: The Republic of Desire
X-Mailing-List: luv-talk <at> luv.asn.au

I wrote this for a forum, but found it amusing enough that I thought I'd 
share it with everyone else here too.

::::

Hi kids! I'm Hilary Rosen, the chief random number generator of the 
Recording Industry Association of America. I'm here to teach you about 
addition, subtraction, and multiplication.

Maths is easy when you remember the four basic letters: R, I, A, A!

Let's do some basic addition!

Example 1: (http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/28574.html)

Jimmy has 156 CD burners that burn at 40x. How many CD burners is that 
equivalent to?

Solution:

156+RIAA = 421.
(Continue reading)

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Seth Finkelstein | 17 Dec 2002 15:27
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Deadline nears for DMCA exemptions


  http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/28590.html

  Deadline nears for DMCA exemptions
  By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
  Posted: 17/12/2002 at 00:04 GMT
  Wednesday's the deadline for you to make a small difference to the
  draconian DMCA, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

  One of the quirks of the Act is that the Library of Congress provides
  administrative oversight. A strange decision, since this is a job
  usually left to the courts. But every three years the Librarian gets
  to review requests and decide which cases are causing serious harm.

  And small but significant progress has been made in very selective
  areas. Seth Finkelstein scored a victory two years ago by persuading
  the Librarian that censorware blacklists could be examined, and small
  portions of them published, as fair use.

  Finkelstein is urging people affected to see if they can make a case,
  too. But with only one part of the DMCA affected, he has no illusions
  about the extent of the opportunity.

  "This is a small victory we can have - but it can be achieved at even
  smaller costs," he told us. "I'm not being blindly optimistic but here
  is a specific task where victory is not certain, but it is possible."

  What's at stake?

  "She wants to hear a factual case for harm caused by the law,"
(Continue reading)

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