Good News In The CopyRight Wars

Very interesting news the Librarian of Congress relaxed and changed some copyright restrictions that will go into effect on Monday. The big news for many is that cell phone users will now be able to break the software locks on their handsets that will allow them to use competing carriers. Also, film professors will be able to use snippets copied from DVDs for educational compilations, the blind will be able to break copy protection schemes to allow eBooks to read via software, and for those with older software (read games, but other software as well) that requires hardware that no longer is available, they will be able to break the copyright scheme to use it for archival purposes. Also if our software requires a dongle which has become damaged, locks can also be broken in that case.

Some interesting movement in some very specific cases. The new rules will be in effect for 3 years. I can't imagine the cellphone providers are happy with this, so we'll see how this rolls out.

Via the AP