Re: Fair Use litigatable?

On Tue, May 23, 2000, Peter F. Cassidy <pcassidy[_at_]world.std.com> wrote:
>
> I've been working with a number of firms that develop some flavor
> or another of technologies that can be used in Digital Rights
> Management schemes or content-access control systems. Interesting
> stuff but a radical departure from what we're used to -- such as
> libraries with books arrayed on the shelf for anyone tolook at
> for free.
>
> These schemes are like offering the public books with padlocks on
> them. You can see what is inside only after you pay full price
> for the entire work. You can buy it or walk away. End of story.
>
> Now, given that fair use is an entitlement drawn out in law, would
> it be possible for someone to go to court to get access to materials
> that are locked up with DRM systems so they could exercise their
> rights to fair use?

Essentially, you're asking how 1201 plays vis-a-vis 107. So far, it's indeterminate, though you might want to follow the New York and Connecticut DVD/DeCSS cases filed by the MPAA.

My opinion (IANAL), yes, court or other options could be exercised to gain fair-use access. It's the "or other options" I'd like to emphasize, and which seems to be conveniently forgotten by many who suggest technological rights enforcement mechanisms.

The way the anti-circumvention measures are currently written, it's not clear that Fair Use has a place, or that reverse engineering or brute-forcing controls can be lawful. This will probably be tested in courts, and likely several times.

--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com>         http://www.netcom.com/~kmself/
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