December 19, 2005

DMCA 1201 Anti-circumvention rulemaking COMMENTS POSTED

[Scoop? Scoop? Not a news echo! You heard it here first!]

The U.S. Copyright Office - Anticircumvention Rulemaking (for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has now posted the Comments on Anticircumvention Exemptions:

Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works

The Copyright Office received 74 comments in response to its notice of inquiry in this rulemaking. A significant number of these comments do not adhere to the requirements of the Office's Notice of Inquiry. For example, a number of commenters have failed to propose a "class of works," have proposed broad classes without factual support for such a class, have not identified a causal connection between a noninfringing use and the prohibition on circumvention, or have not identified an access control that would implicate the prohibition of circumvention. While the value of such comments to this statutory inquiry is questionable, the Copyright Office has decided to post these comments.

It should be noted, however, that the reply comment period is an opportunity to be responsive to the initial proposals, and the Office will only consider reply comments that provide additional facts and/or arguments in further support of or in opposition to genuine proposals for exemptions contained in the comments that appear below. The only mechanism for raising new proposed exemptions at this time is the discretionary petition process discussed in the last paragraph of the Notice of Inquiry.

Sigh ...

By Seth Finkelstein | posted in dmca | on December 19, 2005 05:31 PM (Infothought permalink)
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog (Wikipedia, Google, censorware, and an inside view of net-politics) - Syndicate site (subscribe, RSS)

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Comments

"A significant number of these comments do not adhere to the requirements of the Office's Notice of Inquiry. For example, a number of commenters have failed to propose a "class of works," have proposed broad classes without factual support for such a class, have not identified a causal connection between a noninfringing use and the prohibition on circumvention, or have not identified an access control that would implicate the prohibition of circumvention. While the value of such comments to this statutory inquiry is questionable, the Copyright Office has decided to post these comments."

Did I just get shut down by the Copyright Office?
I think I just got shut down!

Nah, my suggestion was apparently interpreted and filed properly.

Posted by: Anonymous at December 20, 2005 02:16 AM

Sometime soon, federal agencies could set up deliberation/commenting systems which would allow people to caucus on opinions, but I suppose I need to spread that software first.

Meanwhile, for Infothought fans-- Comcast is apparently bouncing mail to Sethf.com. So I called Seth to check on everything. He's alright, and trying to get off Comcast's blacklist. And he is able to read his mail somehow.

On a public note, I wanted to thank Seth for his guidance over the last year helping me navigate the A-Lists and the Z-Lists. It's been fun and informative. We have different research interests, but did find a common theme in the "new gatekeepers" analysis. And it was fun visiting some random weblog (well, random among the usual suspects) and finding Seth already chipping away at some puny argument that some bigshot was making. Looking forward to that again sometime, but I have learned by now the diminishing returns.

Happy New Year, Seth.

Posted by: Jon Garfunkel at December 20, 2005 06:31 PM