US Copyright Chief Thinks DMCA is OK
Well, the feds can give and the feds can take away. In this case the take away is some hope for reasonableness. When Marybeth Peters, the US Register of Copyrights, declared awhile back that consumers unlocking their cell phones did not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a lot of folks were amazed as well as pleased. That was great news for the consumer.
But recent comments throw cold water on any hope of rectifying the multitude of stupid, harmful, and inane clauses in the DMCA. She says "it did what it was supposed to do." Well, on one hand she's right. It is easier for companies to sue. But there were so many hands that went into crafting that law that a card shark couldn't keep up. The DMCA, in its current form, basically spawned an entire revenue stream for the RIAA and its tank of shark-like lawyers. The "takedown" provisions are fraught with stupidity. And there are a myriad of other problems as well.
She also says, "no law is ever perfect." Well she's also correct there. Humans write laws and they aren't perfect either. And in this day and age you can pretty much guarantee that today's law signing ceremony will yield problems down the road, whether by acts of ignorance, greed, or political expedience on the part of the law makers.
Too bad.
Via BoingBoing
