Technolawyer

Como muchos de ustedes saben la DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) ha estrangulado lo que se conoce como “fair use” al impedir muchos de los usos sobre obras digitales que en el mundo físico eran justificados y estaban contemplados como excepciones o limitaciones al derecho de autor.

El día de ayer, los Diputados, por Virginia, Rick Boucher, y por California, John Doolittle presentaron una iniciativa de Ley denominada FAIR USE que en realidad significa Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007.

Esta Ley estaría estableciendo excepciones importantes a la prohibición establecida por la DMCA en relación a la desactivación o violación de candados digitales, DRM, TPM y accesorios físicos como los “dongles”.

Esta legislación contempla seis tipos de obras que serían susceptibles para aplicación de la excepción conforme a lo siguiente:

1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access.

3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.

4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

5. Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.

6. Sound recordings distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

De igual forma, se establecen seis circunstancias para que surta efectos la excepción:

Paragraph (i) would extend the Librarian’s determination with respect to excerpts of audiovisual works for use in all classrooms (instead of just in college media studies classrooms). Under the provision, an instructor could circumvent a digital locks on audiovisual works included in the collection of a library or an archives in order to make compilations of portions of those works for educational use in a classroom at all grade levels.

Paragraph (ii) would authorize consumers to circumvent a lock on a DVD or other audiovisual work in order to skip past commercials at the beginning of it or to bypass personally objectionable content (such as pornographic scenes) contained in the work. The provision does not authorize consumers to make back up DVDs for archival or any other purpose.

Paragraph (iii) would authorize consumers to transmit a work over a home or personal network but not to circumvent for purposes of uploading that work to the Internet.

This provision would ensure that consumers can make fair use of content they have lawfully acquired, as long as they do not engage in the mass, indiscriminate redistribution of that content over the Internet.

Paragraph (iv) would allow individuals to access public domain works that are in a collection of works made up primarily of public domain works. It thus would preclude content owners from denying the public access to public domain works simply by repackaging them with one or more copyrighted works and then applying a digital lock to restrict or deny access to all of the works.

Paragraph (v) would advance long-established First Amendment rights by authorizing reporters, teachers, and others to circumvent digital locks blocking access to works of substantial public interest, when circumvention is accomplished solely for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research.

Paragraph (vi) would authorize circumvention of technological measures that effectively control access to copyrighted works for the purpose of enabling a library or an archive to preserve or secure a copy of a work or to replace a copy that is damaged, deteriorating, lost, or stolen. This would ensure that libraries and archives can continue to engage in activities specifically authorized by section 108 of the Copyright Act.

Considero que es un buen avance, sin embargo todavía resta mucho por hacer. Dentro de las organizaciones que apoyan esta iniciativa se encuentran la Consumer Electronics Association, la American Library Association, la American Association of Law Libraries, la Association of Research Libraries, la Special Libraries Association, la Home Recording Rights Coalition, la Computer & Communications Industry Association y otras organizaciones de defensa de los derechos de los usuarios y consumidores de medios digitales.

Obviamente entre los opositores se encuentra la RIAA.

Habrá que estar pendientes al debate y ver en que termina.

Filed under: Contenidos Digitales