GristyMcFisty reports us that the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has posted a media
release on their website in which we can read that the Librarian of Congress
has denied exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) ban on
circumventing technological locks.
The EFF had specifically
asked the Copyright Office to allow consumers to 1) play copy-protected audio CDs that malfunction to prevent
playback, 2) view foreign region-coded DVD
movies on U.S. players, 3) fast-forward through
unskippable commercials prior to movies on DVDs and 4) play and make full use of public domain movies on
DVDs:
 "Consumers are the real
losers in today's ruling, because the Librarian of Congress is ignoring
the rights of nearly everyone who has purchased CDs and DVDs," said EFF
Staff Attorney Gwen Hinze. "We're disappointed that the Copyright Office
and the Librarian of Congress did not recognize the significant impact
that the DMCA is having on millions of consumers' ability to make
reasonable uses of digital media they've purchased."
"Although the exemptions granted by the
Librarian of Congress are important, today's ruling just underscores the
need for legislative reform of the DMCA to restore the balance in U.S.
Copyright law," commented EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred
von Lohmann.
The Copyright Office did grant exemptions
for the following activities:
- Decoding lists of Web pages or
directories blocked by Internet filtering software, also known as
censorware. EFF Pioneer Award recipient Seth Finkelstein was
instrumental in lobbying for censorware exemptions to the DMCA for each
U.S. Copyright Office rulemaking period.
- Circumventing obsolete digital rights
management devices called dongles that prevent access due to malfunction
or damage. The Internet Archive requested this exemption.
- Accessing computer programs and video
games distributed in obsolete formats. The Internet Archive requested
this exemption.
- Accessing ebooks for which the
publisher has disabled the read-aloud function or the ability to use
screen readers to render the text into a specialized format, such as
Braille for access by the blind. The American Foundation for the Blind
and five major library associations requested this exemption.
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Source: EFF
