Rep. Boucher says he wants to "Free Dmitry" and amend DMCA

[Declan McCullagh]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,45548,00.html

   Rep: Give Fair Use a Fair Shake
   By Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
   
   12:55 p.m. July 25, 2001 PDT
   
   WASHINGTON -- Rep. Rick Boucher wants to spring a Russian programmer
   from jail.
   
   Boucher, a maverick Virginia Democrat, is hoping to rewrite a federal
   law that led FBI agents to arrest Dmitry Sklyarov in Las Vegas,
   Nevada, last week on copyright felony charges.
   
   "It's a broad overreach to have a person arrested under the federal
   criminal laws simply because they made software that circumvents a
   technological measure," Boucher said. Boucher said his office will
   draft a bill to be introduced later this year.
   
   The criminal law in question is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
   which was obscure enough when Congress enacted it in 1998, but has
   emerged as the one of the most important and far-reaching technology
   regulations. Sklyarov is charged with trafficking in a program to
   bypass Adobe's copy protection for e-books, a federal felony under the
   DMCA.
   
   "I think the current case adds impetus to the growing effort to
   fashion an amendment to the DMCA that would restore the classic
   balance (of fair use rights)," Boucher said.
   
   That promises to be anything but a trivial task. Leaders of the House
   and Senate subcommittees that oversee copyright law said Tuesday that
   they would not consider any changes to the DMCA.

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