Last week, on Copyfight, I noted Some Good News - Support for Anti-DMCA Increasing. Now, C|Net News has a couple of articles expanding on the good news (Tech heavies support challenge to copyright law and The Hill's property rights showdow). The first article reports on a new coalition of PC OEMs, chip manufacturers, and consumer electronics manufacturers, who will coordinate lobbying efforts to rollback the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. The group will be known as the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition - a pretty good name, I think. The second article is an interview with an optimistic Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), sponsor of the anti-DMCA bill. See also, Slashdot (Boucher's Anti-DMCA Bill Gets High Profile Allies).
This won't be an easy win, but it is significant forward progress.
UPDATE 0935 PT
Freedom to Tinker: Tech Giants Support DMCA Reform
Before assuming that the DMCA is going to be rolled back any time soon read Article 17.4.7 of the US-Australia "Free Trade" Agreement ( http://www.dfat.gov.au/trade/negotiations/us_fta/final-text/chapter_17.html ), currently under consideration for ratification by the US and Australian legislatures. This article mandates that the US DMCA stays in place and stays broad while Article 17.12 gives Australia 2 years to pass equally draconian legislation.
This gives both governments an easy argument against future watering down of the legislation, "Sorry, international obligations, nothing can be done."
Excerpt: Yesterday, I noted that a new consumer electronics coalition was launching, part of the good news regarding the anti-DMCA bill moving slowly through Congress (Anti-DMCA Personal Technology Freedom Coalition to Launch). Today, The Register publishes a s...
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