RE: Clarification (RE: "Fair Use" Is Getting Unfair Treatment)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> If the database owner has taken technological steps to restrict me from
> fair use actions, then it is illegal to circumvent those technological
> protections in order to make fair use of the content of the database. IT
> is illegal to circumvent adobe's security even if the use I want to make
> of the content is legal.

Right.  It's also illegal for you to break into my house, even if all you
want to do is copy a page from my phonebook.  Your proposed use of the
information is fair; your proposed mode of access is not.  Now: should
publishers be allowed to lock up information the same way I'm allowed to
lock up my house?  I don't know.  That's a tough one.

> That is what the DMCA does, removes the test of
> fair use from the equation.

That's not the same thing as changing the criteria for fair use.  Fair use
guidelines say what you can do once you get your hands on the content; the
DMCA says that not all ways of getting your hands on the content are OK.
(I'm not arguing that the DMCA is a good law, just pointing out the
difference between laws that regulate modes of access and laws that
regulate one's use of the content once it's accessed.)

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno      "That wasn't a Freudian slip;
1664 No. Virginia St.              it was a Jungian slip."
Reno, NV  89557                       -- Dr. Katz
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu