FC: Rep. Boucher says he wants to "Free Dmitry" and fix the DMCA

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu Jul 26 2001 - 08:36:24 PDT

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    Politech archive on U.S. v. Sklyarov:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=sklyarov
    
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    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45548,00.html
    
       Rep: Give Fair Use a Fair Shake
       By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
       
       12:55 p.m. July 25, 2001 PDT
       
       WASHINGTON -- Rep. Rick Boucher wants to spring a Russian programmer
       from jail.
       
       Boucher, a maverick Virginia Democrat, is hoping to rewrite a federal
       law that led FBI agents to arrest Dmitry Sklyarov in Las Vegas,
       Nevada, last week on copyright felony charges.
       
       "It's a broad overreach to have a person arrested under the federal
       criminal laws simply because they made software that circumvents a
       technological measure," Boucher said. Boucher said his office will
       draft a bill to be introduced later this year.
       
       The criminal law in question is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
       which was obscure enough when Congress enacted it in 1998, but has
       emerged as the one of the most important and far-reaching technology
       regulations. Sklyarov is charged with trafficking in a program to
       bypass Adobe's copy protection for e-books, a federal felony under the
       DMCA.
       
       "I think the current case adds impetus to the growing effort to
       fashion an amendment to the DMCA that would restore the classic
       balance (of fair use rights)," Boucher said.
       
       That promises to be anything but a trivial task. Leaders of the House
       and Senate subcommittees that oversee copyright law said Tuesday that
       they would not consider any changes to the DMCA.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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