Digital Fair Use Bill Introduced In Congress – Post I.T. – A Technology Blog From The Washington Post – washingtonpost.com & Reps. Boucher and Doolittle Introduce the FAIR USE Act of 2007
U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA) have introduced a bill which is designed to alter the Fair Use landscape under the DMCA. Rep. Boucher summarized:
“The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before. Historically, the nation’s copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public’s right to fair use.”
However, as any good copyright lawyer will tell you, fair use is a defense to infringement–not a right. Perhaps legislative action such as this could help give the public exactly what it sorely needs: guidelines or boundaries (I’ll still avoid using the word “right” here) for the typical user of a copyrighted work.
Under the “old” media landscape, deep pockets and insurance could withstand the threat of an infringement suit. Now, participatory media have pushed the fair-use-as-defense model to its breaking point. For the typical user of digital media to know what is permissible under the law, there needs to be a better way for users to engage with new media without worrying about being vulnerable to a lawsuit. A change like this may be controversial, but I would argue that it’s far superior to enforce a law by foster public acceptance and legitmacy…as opposed to purely enforcing the limits of the law through DRM.
Here’s a link to the draft text.