RE: A thought about S. 2037--anticircumvention & fair use

[David_Mirchin@silverplatter.com]

Hello,

The Senate Committee report of May 11, 1998 to accompany The Digital
Millenium Copyright Act, S. 2037 (the law which implements the WIPO
copyright treaty) states as follows:

"The bill does not amend section 107 of the Copyright Act, the fair use
provision.  The Committee determined that no change to section 107 was
required because section 107, as written, is technologically neutral, and
therefore, the fair use doctrine is fully applicable in the digital world
as in the analog world."

Based on that, wouldn't it be highly unlikely from a practical perspective,
that a  prosecutor would bring a case against someone who circumvented
copyright protection mechanisms to make fair use of copyrighted material?

In any event, would a better solution be to explicitly state that a defense
to liability under the anti-circumvention provisions be that "I was making
fair use"?

David Mirchin
VP & General Counsel
SilverPlatter Information, Inc.
davidm@silverplatter.com
tel: 781-769-2599, ext. 235