Internet Archive, DMCA Exemptions, and Press Echo Chamber

Last week, the Internet Archive got some press for DMCA exemptions. That's last week, not last year. Being that the DMCA exemptions were announced last October, this puzzled me. As a DMCA exemption winner myself, with much grief, the topic is very dear to my heart.

It turned into a minor case study of echoing.

We start with the base article, from The Inquirer:

Internet Archive has copyright problems
DMCA exempt for now

By Nick Farrell: Wednesday 11 August 2004, 07:17
[TheInquirer]
The US Internet Archive, which makes archival copies of software and data, said it was technically impossible to do its job because of the Act which forbids copying software. ...

This week the group announced on its site here that the Copyright Office has ordered a temporary exemption for the group's work.

This article is not quite correct, as once more, the exemption were announced in October 2003. And the Archive announcements page shows the particular page was posted on January 08, 2004.

But now the fun begins.

Echo - broadbandreports

Echo - FARK

Echo - LawMeme

Echo - LISNews

Echo - CD Freaks

Echo - Techdirt (but points for at least wondering about the age of the story)

echo, echo, echo, echo ...

All of this generated from one item that arose from a reporter writing about something which was in fact many months old.

And the moral of the story is: Nobody should ever tell me that the paucity of favorable coverage I've received was due to my censorware work not being worthy. That's a rationalization. Because it's too easy to kick me when I'm down, than to admit I was let-down.

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