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List:       dmca-discuss
Subject:    [DMCA_Discuss] The Worst Law Ever? (Two on the DMCA)
From:       Vladimir Katalov <vkatalov () elcomsoft ! com>
Date:       2002-09-26 9:24:58
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Salon.com: The Worst Law Ever? (Two on the DMCA)
Aug 31, 2001, 17 :31 UTC
(Other stories by Damien Cave and Katharine Mieszkowski) 

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-08-31-013-20-NW-CY

"For computer geeks and civil libertarians, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act is one of the most despised laws of the land. But the
3-year-old law passed a major test on Wednesday: To the dismay of
critics, the U.S. Copyright Office evaluated the effects of the DMCA
without calling for a complete revision.

Specifically, the 200-page study judged whether the new Net-focused
law violated two relevant sections of offline copyright law: the
doctrine of "first sale," or the right to resell or make personal
copies of a copyrighted work without a publisher's permission; as well
as a copyright law that permits the owner of a computer program to
make a backup copy.

The study does give critics some ammunition to work with. It asks
legislators, for example, to clarify whether temporary copies are
legal, and advises Congress to give users of digital content the right
to make archival copies. But the report also rejects the argument that
offline copyright law should apply to the digital world, calling the
analogy 'flawed and unconvincing.'"

"EnviroLink Network , a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit Internet service
provider, took offline two Web sites belonging to the animal-rights
activist group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. The action came in
response to a letter sent to the ISP earlier in the week by Huntingdon
Life Sciences , a British medical research firm. Citing the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Huntingdon accused the activists of
violating its copyright. Although no charges have yet been filed,
under the terms of the DMCA, Envirolink was forced to remove the sites
to avoid potential legal liability.

'It's very clear that Huntingdon Life Sciences just wants to shut them
up,' says Josh Knauer, the founder of Envirolink, which provides free
Web hosting to nonprofits. The animal-rights group's U.S. site has
been replaced with a single page explaining the conflict, while the
main site redirects to another ISP, allowing it to remain up for the
moment. A notice on the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty Web site
taunts: 'If you read this HLS realize that you will never shut us up
and we are as determined to destroy you now as we were in November
1999 when this campaign began and destroy you we will.' Calls to legal
counsel for Huntingdon Life Sciences were not returned. Huntingdon's
response is hardly the first legal skirmish between Huntingdon and its
critics; most recently, the company brought suit against Stop
Huntingdon Animal Cruelty and other animal-rights groups last April
using racketeering law to fight the activist's allegedly radical
tactics, including 'violence, intimidation and harassment'; the law
suit is still pending."

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