IT: Victory - DMCA Exemption for censorware renewed!

[Seth Finkelstein]

	For the past several months, I have been working on advocating
for DMCA exemptions, in particular the exemption for censorware. Today,
(Oct 28) the Copyright Office released its ruling on DMCA exemptions. The
censorware exemption was one of only four granted, out of all proposed.
The Register has attributed that exemption primarily to *ME*!

	More info:

http://www.copyright.gov/1201/
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/librarian_statement_01.html
http://www.copyright.gov/1201/docs/registers-recommendation.pdf

My testimony:  http://sethf.com/anticensorware/hearing_dc.php

	From The Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights:

  The Register's recommendation in favor of this exemption is based
  primarily on the evidence introduced in the comments and testimony by
  one person, Seth Finkelstein, a non-lawyer participating on his own
  behalf. In addition to identifying a class of works that related to
  the specific facts presented, he identified the qualitative nature of
  the noninfringing uses for which circumvention was necessary and
  generally identified the technological measure which controlled access
  to this class. There was no dispute that the lists of Internet
  locations blocked by filtering software are generally encrypted or
  otherwise protected by an access control measure. The remedy sought
  was causally related to the noninfringing uses that are necessary to
  conduct research, comment and criticism on the filtering software at
  issue. Mr. Finkelstein also anticipated objections to the exemption
  and proved that available alternatives to the exemption were
  insufficient to remedy the adverse effect caused by the
  prohibition. The insufficiency of alternatives was supported by
  testimony and demonstrative evidence at the hearing in California by
  James Tyre. Finally, Mr. Finkelstein's succinct initial comment
  addressed the statutory requirements and thoughtfully analyzed each of
  the statutory factors required to be considered in this rulemaking.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf at sethf.com  http://sethf.com