[wordup] sneaky ways to make the dmca legal ...

[Adam Shand]

From:http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/2003_04.shtml#001123
More: http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/lessig/blog/archives/zoe.pdf

We’ve seen it all before

There’s a standard dance that the IP extremists do well: When they lose 
in Congress, they go overseas and negotiate a treaty that imposes on the 
US the same obligation they just lost in Congress; then they come back 
and say, “we must do this to live up to our international obligations.”

So here we go again: The US Trade Representative is negotiating trade 
agreements with Chile and Singapore. The agreements essentially require 
these two countries to adopt the DMCA, and make it a violation of “our 
international obligations” if we were to change the DMCA. 
Representatives Lofgren and Boucher — who both have bills introduced to 
amend the DMCA — have written a strongly worded letter to the USTR 
asking for clarification. For consistent with this policy making 
process, just what is being promised is never made clear — until it is 
too late. Here’s the letter.

posted on [ Apr 30 03 at 11:18 AM ] to [ bad law ] [ 3 comments ]