In Washington DC on Tuesday 5 June 2012 at 1:30 pm in the Jefferson Building, there will be a discussion of Proposed Exemption 4 to the "Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies" which prohibition is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Here is the page for the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress: http://myloc.gov/exhibitspaces/jeffbuilding/pages/default.aspx Every three years citizens of the United States argue for exemptions to the ridiculous "Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies", which prohibition is a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the DMCA for short. If enforced, the "Prohibition on Circum..." ah, let us call it the Anti-Circumvention Clause of the DMCA, would give to Apple the power to bring a legal action which might result in jail time for some of the millions of people in the USA who today have root on the iPhones and iPads they use. And this month, for the first time, Microsoft, in partnership with Dell, HP, and Lenovo, will be in the same legal position as Apple: Microsoft has arranged that all Microsoft Certified Home Computers will only boot an Officially Approved-by-Microsoft Operating System. Under the Anti-Circumvention Clause of the DMCA getting root on an Microsoft Certified Home Computer will be a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment. (There may be a small exception to this: if you get root on the box by yourself, with no one else's help, and you do not publish information about your work, getting root may be allowed. In practice such engineering work is always a joint work of several, often, many people, and the results of such work, that is, the method to get root, is published.) The situation is not without hope. Congress at the passage of the DMCA feared that the Anti-Circumvention Clause would grant unjust powers to large malign entities such as Apple, Microsoft, and Sony. So Congress asked the Librarian of Congress to look at the Anti-Circumvention Clause every three years, and issue formal legal Exemptions to the list of prohibited actions. The Register of Copyrights, in cooperation with the Commerce Department, asks citizens to propose Exemptions to the Anti-Circumvention Clause. Then, after public comment and discussion, the Register of Copyrights makes a recommendation to the Librarian of Congress, who decides which Proposed Exemptions will be granted. The 5 June 2012 meeting in Washington is part of this process of proposing, commenting on, and discussing possible Exemptions to the Anti-Circumvention Clause. New Yorkers for Fair Use, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and The Software Freedom Law Center will argue that we should keep our right to own a computer. The Joint Creators and Copyright Owners Organization and the Motion Picture Association of America will argue that we should, by enforcement without exemption, of the Anti-Circumvention Clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, extinguish our right to own a computer. Below my signature are some pointers to information about the Anti-Circumvention Clause and about Palladium, the new, and now deployed, serious hardware and software system designed to keep root in the hands of Apple, for Apple devices, and Microsoft for Microsoft Certified hardware, and Sony, for Sony devices. If Palladium is forced into all computing devices, then with the backing of the Anti-Circumvention Clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it will be, in the United States of America, a crime to own a home computer. Come on down to the Jefferson Building on Tuesday 5 June 2012 and sit and stand in support of our right to own a computer. Jay Sulzberger <[email protected]> Corresponding Secretary LXNY LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization. http://www.lxny.org Wikipedia article on the DMCA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act [page was last modified on 1 June 2012 at 02:38] Neither Apple nor Microsoft have as yet invoked the Anti-Circumvention Clause of the DMCA. But Sony has, against GeoHot, owner-operator of a Sony device, and a serious hacker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment_America_v._George_Hotz [page was last modified on 31 March 2012 at 22:08] Explanation of DRM: http://www.panix.com/~jays/what.is.drm.3 [from 2003, still accurate] Explanation of Palladium: http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/palladium/ [from 2003, therefore out of date with regard to immediate tactical situation; accurate as to what Palladium, now called "secure boot", is; present tactical situation worse, Palladium is in every Microsoft Certified Computer today, it is also in all iPhones and iPads] <blockquote what="What precisely will be discussed at the 1:30 pm Tuesday 5 June 2012 meeting"> Proposed Exemption 4 was proposed by the Software Freedom Law Center. Here is the summary of 4: Computer programs that enable the installation and execution of lawfully obtained software on a personal computing device, where circumvention is performed by or at the request of the device's owner. from the list of all Proposed Exemptions at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2011/initial/ The complete full text of the Proposed Exemption 4 is at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2011/initial/sflc.pdf The proposal is long and thorough in its argument and its citations. The comments on all the Proposed Exemptions may be seen at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/comments/ New Yorkers for Fair Use's plea in favor of Proposed Exemption 4 is at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/comments/jay_sulzberger.pdf We are in good company. Bunnie Huang's comment is at http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/comments/Andrew_Huang.pdf And Bunnie is joined by 25,000 people in his second comment: http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2012/comments/Andrew_Huang_2.pdf On the panel, our side is strong. In addition to Brett Wynkoop and Jay Sulzberger of New Yorkers for Fair Use, we've got Aaron Williamson, of the Software Freedom Law Center, and Marcia Hoffman, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. </blockquote> _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
