DMCA hearings information announced by Copyright Office

The Copyright Office has now announced information regarding public hearings for the process of determining DMCA Exemptions

This is good reading (for those who like this type of reading):

http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2003/hearings.pdf

The Copyright Office stresses that factual arguments are at least as important as legal arguments and encourages persons who wish to testify to provide demonstrative evidence to supplement their testimony. While testimony from attorneys who can articulate legal arguments in support of or opposition to a proposed exempted class of works is useful, testimony from witnesses who can explain and demonstrate the facts is also solicited.

I found this part amusing:

In the written comment period, the Office received nearly 400 written comments. Given the time constraints, only a fraction of that number could possibly testify at the hearings. A timely request to testify does not guarantee an opportunity to testify at these hearings. The Copyright Office encourages parties with similar interests to select common representatives to testify on behalf of a particular position.

But note elsewhere:

Depending on the number of requests to testify that we receive, it may not be necessary to conduct hearings on all four of these days. The date or dates for the hearings in California will be announced later.

And:

The Office intends to organize individual sessions of the hearings around particular or related classes of works proposed for exemption.

I think this means that the DVD issues are only going to get so much time during the process.

Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)