EFF gives up on DMCA exemption process
There’s a story over at PC Pro, that says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has given up on the process for obtaining exemptions from the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). They claim that the three year exemption period is meaningless. All of their requests for exemptions have been declined. Including requests to allow DVD purchasers to be able to play DVD’s purchased from any region, to allow CD purchasers to play copy protected discs on a PC, and to allow skipping of “unskippable” ads at the beginning of DVDs.
The copyright office saw these as inconveniences (you could buy DVD players from multiple regions, could still play copy protected cds in a cd player, etc.)
It also says that the exemption structure only allows for cases where infringement should be allowed to go unpunished, but does not include the powers to legalise the tools that may be needed to enable the cases in the first place.
The EFF has released a paper ‘DMCA Triennial Rulemaking: Failing Consumers Completely’ on its website.