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Category Archives: Digital Rights

Reps. Boucher and Doolittle Introduce the FAIR USE Act of 2007

Press release: “U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA), today introduced the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act) to protect the fair use rights of users of copyrighted material and thereby enable consumers of digital media to use it in ways that enhance their personal convenience. The… Continue Reading

Proposed Framework For Evaluating Digital Rights Management

CDT press release: “Evaluating DRM: Building a Marketplace for the Convergent World” tackles the complicated subject of copyright protection technology, offering a clear set of metrics for consumers and product reviewers to consider when evaluating DRM-protected devices and services. The goal of the paper is to educate users about what questions to ask to determine… Continue Reading

CATO Study Challenges Courts’ Role in Digital Rights Management

Circumventing Competition: The Perverse Consequences of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF, 28 pages), by Timothy B. Lee “The courts have a proven track record of fashioning balanced remedies for the copyright challenges created by new technologies. But when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, it cut the courts out of this… Continue Reading

UK Gov’t Conducts Public Inquiry on Digital Rights Management

“The All Party Parliamentary Internet Group (APIG) [held] an oral evidence session [February 2, 2006] at the House of Commons, as part of its public inquiry on Digital Rights Management(DRM)…The inquiry…is seeking to establish how consumers, artists and the distribution companies should be protected in a continually evolving market place…Regrettably, this session will not be… Continue Reading

Texas AG Brings Enforcement Action For Spyware Violations

Press release: “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment as the first state in the nation to bring legal action against SONY for illegal ‘spyware.’ The suit is also the first filed under the state’s spyware law of 2005. It alleges the company surreptitiously installed the spyware on millions of compact… Continue Reading

Report Reviews Market and Legal Challenges to Book Digitizing Projects

Acquiring Copyright Permission to Digitize and Provide Open Access to Books, Published by the Council on Library and Information Resources and Digital Library Federation, (72 pages, PDF) Related references to Google’s announcement that Print Program scanning will resume, along with clarifications on the programs goals: From the Official Google Blog posting, October 31, 2005: “..the… Continue Reading