Los Angeles - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will testify May 14-15, 2003, on requested exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in public hearings before the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress (LoC). EFF will renew its request for the Copyright Office to recognize the rights of consumers to skip past commercials on DVDs, view DVDs sold only outside the U.S., and play copy-protected CDs on the players of their choice.
EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze will testify and EFF Staff Activist Ren Bucholz will assist.
EFF has long sought exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) prohibition on bypassing technological protections used to limit consumer use of DVDs and copy-protected CDs.
EFF will testify in support of the four exemptions it has proposed. EFF asked the LoC to create DMCA exemptions for four types of digital media:
1) music on copy-protected CDs where malfunctioning copy- protection restrictions prevent playback
2) movies on DVDs whose region coding restrictions prevent playback on U.S. players
3) movies on DVDs which prevent skipping of commercials
4) movies in the public domain released on DVD
If granted, these exemptions will allow consumers to play music and movies that they've lawfully obtained and make full use of public domain movies.
The entertainment industry encodes DVDs by the region in which they are sold in an attempt to control release and pricing of movies sold worldwide. Region 1 includes the United States.
"Many great films are available only outside the U.S.," said EFF Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "We urge the LoC to allow film buffs to play movies they've legitimately purchased outside the U.S. without fear of breaking the law."
The recent distribution of "copy-protected" CDs has made some CDs unplayable on computer CD players. "The music industry's copy-protected CDs are completely unplayable in many PCs," said EFF Staff Activist Ren Bucholz. "When I buy a CD, I should be able to play it on all my CD players."
The LoC has called for comments as part of a triennial process of granting exemptions to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. Legislators charged the LoC and the U.S. Copyright Office with reviewing the effect of the anti-circumvention provisions on the public's ability to make non-infringing uses of copyrighted works secured by digital protection technologies.
This rulemaking procedure allows the LoC and the Copyright Office to grant limited three-year exemptions to the DMCA's blanket prohibition on bypassing technological protection measures. In that way, users could access particular classes of copyrighted works that are protected by digital protection mechanisms.
The hearings are divided into panels which will discuss exemptions for various types of works. EFF will testify on the following four panels:
Wednesday, May 14 (afternoon):
Panel 3 - Sound recordings and musical works on copy-protected audio CDs
Thursday, May 15 (all day):
Panel 1 - Unskippable promotional material on DVDs
Panel 2 - Public domain motion pictures released on DVDs
Panel 3 - Motion pictures released on region-coded DVDs
The hearings will run from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on May 14 and May 15, 2003, in the Moot Court, Room 1310, on the first floor of the UCLA School of Law, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles.
Gwen Hinze
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
gwen@eff.org
+1 415 436-9333 x110 (office)
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/
