Would John Kerry Defang the DMCA?

[az_bont]

"John Kerry finally has hinted at a position that would mark one of the first real differences from his Republican rival.

In a barely noticed remark on Thursday, the Democratic senator said he might support defanging the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--the unpopular law that has prompted take-to-the-street protests from the geek community.

Kerry's survey response said he is "open to examining" whether to change current law "to ensure that a person who lawfully obtains or receives a transmission of a digital work may back up a copy of it for archival purposes" or transfer it to another device. CompTIA's open-ended question had merely asked "What should federal policy be toward protecting intellectual property on the Internet?"--without mentioning backup copies."

Source: ZDNet (more)

[Ex-Cyber]

IMHO, the issue of "backup copies" is far from the biggest problem with DMCA. Chapter 12 constitutes a de-facto right for content and platform providers to control private usage of a work, something that is traditionally considered to be squarely outside the realm of authorship rights.

[ragnarok2040]

Heh, at least Kerry will look at it .