Please note that all blog posts before 8 April 2007 were automatically imported from LiveJournal. To see the comments and any LiveJournal-specific extras such as polls and user icons, please find the source posting at http://brianenigma.livejournal.com/2002/11/It may not be as important as writing your congressman about reproductive rights, but you might want to fill out a quick form that emails/faxes your congressman in support of the DMCRA. This bill is being introduced to do two things:
(1) properly label copy-protected CDs. These CDs are technically “broken” according to Sony's audio Compact Disc specification. Obviously, you can't rip them to MP3, but more importantly, they fail to play in a number of consumer devices: your computer, a good number of portable CD players, a some car CD players, etc. The electronics in a CD-ROM drive are cheap and small (you have probably seen this firsthand if you have seen a laptop in the last couple of years). Because of this and the fact that they are nicely shock-resistant, computer CD-ROM drives are getting put into all sorts of devices–devices that will not play copy-protected CDs.
(2) relax some of the restrictions on the vague, yet draconian, DMCA. This includes the right to bypass copy-protection when performing legitimate scientific research and when you have purchased the copy-protected work. Currently you can get fined and/or go to jail if you try to play a copy-protected CD you purchase from Tower in a computer using any sort of software that enables you to play it.