l'impegno dell'internet archive e di alcuni avvocati e/o studenti di
legge ha portato ad un piccolo allargamento delle strettissime maglie
del DMCA, la liberticida legislazione statunitense sul copyright.
nello specifico le esenzioni ottenute consentiranno di aggirare le
protezioni anticopia qualora questo sia necessario per preservare (in
senso bibliotecario) software "obsoleti" (cioe' che possono essere
utilizzati solo su piattaforme hardware ormai fuori produzione).
ciao
pinna
-------- Messaggio Originale --------
Oggetto: [c-what] [US, COPYRIGHT, DMCA] L'Internet Archive introduce
un'esenzione al DMCA
Data: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 09:34:10 +0100
Da: Andrea Glorioso <andrea@???>
A: copywhat@???
E` molto importante. Scusate se non traduco, ma ho davvero pochissimo
tempo.
http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=82097
Internet Archive Helps Secure Exemption To The Digital Millennium
Copyright Act
Thanks to the hard work of two great law school students of Peter
Jaszi of American University, Jieun Kim and Doug Agopsowicz, the
Internet Archive and other libraries may continue to preserve software
and video game titles without fear of going to jail. This is a happy
moment, but on the other hand this exception is so limited it leaves
the overall draconian nature of the DMCA in effect. A total of more
than $50,000 of pro-bono lawyer time has been spent to just affect
this exemption and its continuation. We hope that Congress, and other
governments, will pass more balanced copyright laws to allow at least
libraries, archives, research and scholarship to flourish without the
current dark clouds of litigation.
More formally, Internet Archive has successfully advocated for an
exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). The DMCA
prohibits circumvention of technological measures employed by or on
behalf of copyright owners to protect their works ("access controls")
. Specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201(a)(1)(A) provides, in part, that "No
person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively
controls access to a work protected under this title." In order to
ensure that the public will have continued ability to engage in
noninfringing uses of copyrighted works, such as fair use,
subparagraph (B) limits this prohibition. It provides that the
prohibition against circumvention "shall not apply to persons who are
users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular class of works,
if such persons are, or are likely to be in the succeeding three-year
period, adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their
ability to make noninfringing uses of that particular class of works
under this title" as determined in a rulemaking proceeding.
On November 27, 2006, the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation
of the Register of Copyrights, announced six classes of works which
will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access
controls (the DMCA) through October 27, 2009. One of these six classes
includes:
"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, when circumvention is accomplished for the
purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published
digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered
obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a
work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer
reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."
The group primarily responsible for requesting this second exemption
is the Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to
build an internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent
access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical
collections that exist in digital format. Long before the enactment of
the DMCA, many works distributed in digital formats on physical media
(such as floppy diskettes) were designed so that the original diskette
must be inserted into the appropriate drive in the computer in order
to enable access to the work ("original only" access controls). When
the Internet Archive migrates the content of these works to digital
archival systems, often times the "original only" access controls must
be circumvented to verify the integrity of the reproduction. Such
"original-only" technological measures qualify as access controls
even though the primary purpose may be to prevent copying. Thus, by
circumventing the "original-only" access controls to verify the
integrity of reproductions, the Internet Archive could potentially
face liability under the DMCA for its archival work. However, as a
result of receiving this exemption, the Internet Archive may continue
to circumvent these access control measures for preservation purposes.
This exemption marks the second successful DMCA exemption proposed by
the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive first received an exemption
similar to the just-granted exemption back in 2003, thanks to pro-bono
help of Alex Macgillivray, then of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and
Rosati. As a result of receiving this exemption, the Internet Archive
can continue its important archival work of computer programs and
video games for at least the next three years, free from liability
under the DMCA.
To read the full recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, please
visit:
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/1201_recommendation.pdf
+++
Ciao,
--
Andrea Glorioso || http://people.digitalpolicy.it/sama/cv/
M: +39 348 921 4379 F: +39 051 930 31 133
"Truth is a relationship between a theory and the world;
beauty is a relationship between a theory and the mind."
