For Immediate Release
January 16, 2003

AALL is seeking co-sponsors for the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act, which reaffirms fair use in the digital age.

The Association and other supporters of the DMCRA need to gather additional co-sponsors before the House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee holds its hearing on the bill. So please mail or fax a letter to your representative urging him or her to co-sponsor this proactive legislation.

Introduced in the House of Representatives in October 2002, the DMCRA would restore the historic balance in copyright law by repealing key portions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act currently punishes any circumvention of a technological protection measure that controls access to a copyrighted work, even if the circumvention is for a legitimate purpose. The DMCRA would prohibit circumvention only when the purpose is to infringe copyright.

The proposed law would also allow manufacturers to continue developing useful multipurpose consumer electronics and computing devices and ensure that the public has access to technologies that allow them to make fair use of copyrighted works.

In addition, under the DMCRA, researchers could produce the software tools necessary to carry out “scientific research into technological protection measures” and distribute their codes.

Lastly, the DMCRA would direct the Federal Trade Commission to ensure that record companies provide adequate notification on copy-protected CDs, clearly indicating that copying those CDs and playing them in various devices is prohibited.

For more information about the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act of 2002, please go to the AALL Washington Affairs Office Web site at http://www.ll.georgetown.edu/aallwash/aa01082003.html.