EFF helps slashdot the Copyright Office

By Cory Doctorow at 7:50 am Saturday, Feb 22

The Copyright Office just closed its proceeding in thich is called on the public to describe situations in which the anti-circumvention provisions in the DMCA (which makes it illegal to circumvent an access control system, like DVD region encoding, even for a lawful purpose, like watching foreign movies) frustrated legitimate uses.

EFF asked the public to write up its experiences with the DMCA, and, working with an army of volunteer editors and law-students, worked with commentors to get the comments into the form that the copyright office expected, for maximum effectiveness. In the end, we helped file nearly 200 comments, more than double what the Copyright Office ever received in previous comment-periods.

If there's any justice, this will move the Copyright Office to carve out exceptions to the DMCA that will give us all the freedom to make lawful uses of our lawfully acquired property. Thanks to everyone who helped with this -- it really made a difference. Link Discuss