Re: Shrinkwrap contract on books

[Peter Suber <peters@earlham.edu>]

At 05:10 PM 12/9/2002 -0500, David Goodman wrote:

>Besides the obvious need for the repeal of the UCITA, the necessary legal
>change is for the provision in the copyright law that it does not take
>precedence over specific contracts, to be changed to read exactly the
>opposite, that contracts imposing further restrictions on published
>material are against public policy and not enforceable.
>
>Dr. David Goodman
>dgoodman@princeton.edu

David,

At the "Protecting the Information Commons" conference in Washington, D.C.
last May, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) said that he had two bills to introduce
to Congress.  The first would restore the fair-use rights essentially
repealed by the DMCA, e.g. legalizing circumvention for the purpose of
fair use.  Boucher introduced this bill in October.  The second would do
just what you're describing:  render unenforceable any contract or
licensing terms that gave copyright holders more protection than they
already have under the federal copyright statute.

Peter
----------
Peter Suber, Professor of Philosophy
Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, 47374
Email peters@earlham.edu
Web http://www.earlham.edu/~peters

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