Bi-Partisan Bill Introduced in Congress to Replace DRM with Fair Use

Remeber the open letter by Steve Jobs about the fact that DRM is crippling the digital music industry? Somebody might be listening to him. According to the Washington Post, Reps. Rich Boucher (D-Va.) and John Dolittle (R-Calif.) have introduced the “Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship” (or FAIR USE) Act to amend the fair reaching and imprope scope of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

“The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public’s right to fair use,” Boucher said in a statement. “Without a change in the law, individuals will be less willing to purchase digital media if their use of the media within the home is severely circumscribed and the manufacturers of equipment and software that enables circumvention for legitimate purposes will be reluctant to introduce the products into the market.”

This would be a huge boon to the reader of ebooks and to consumers.

JaneJane is a long time romance reader whose passion is, you guessed it, reading. Jane also does not like to talk about herself in the third person, but apparently this is the way that this biography thing works (although in a true biography, someone else would be writing this blurb). Anyway, currently Jane loves urban fantasy authors Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews. She's really excited about this year's crop of historicals including Joanna Bourne's The Spymaster's Lady and Sherry Thomas' Private Arrangements and the upcoming Loretta Chase Her Scandalous Ways. She's looking for a good contemporary author. Email her with a recommendation! Email this author | All posts by Jane

One comment to “Bi-Partisan Bill Introduced in Congress to Replace DRM with Fair Use”

  1. 1

    Fantastic! It’s about time that someone stands up for ebook consumers. DRM is a big pain for ebook readers. My Adobe Digital Library is more often than not blocked, so that I can not access my paid for ebooks!

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