Boucher's FAIR USE Act and the Backlash

Normally, I am wary of legislation with cheesy acronyms, but Representative Rick Boucher of Virginia's "Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing United States Entrepreneurship (FAIR USE) Act" is laudable.

The law (H.R. 1201) seeks to, among other things, exempt certain activities from DMCA retribution. The modifications of the DMCA would allow consumers to circumvent DRM if the motivation falls under the traditional bounds of fair use.

In his press release, Boucher said,

"The fair use doctrine is threatened today as never before. Historically, the nation's copyright laws have reflected a carefully calibrated balanced between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of the users of copyrighted material. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act dramatically tilted the copyright balance toward complete copyright protection at the expense of the public's right to fair use," Boucher said. "The FAIR USE Act will assure that consumers who purchase digital media can enjoy a broad range of uses of the media for their own convenience in a way which does not infringe the copyright in the work."

In typical fashion, the RIAA has already responded, saying that the bill would "legalize hacking." This claim draws on the assumption that hacking is always nefarious. Traditionally, hacking was quite admirable while "cracking" was done with criminal intent. If accessing content for legal means is "hacking" then I am all for it.

"The difference between hacking done for non-infringing purposes and hacking done to steal is impossible to determine and enforce," the RIAA said in its statement.

What? Enforce what? Determine what? Don't we have a legal system (which, by the way, the RIAA seems quite keen on using) to determine criminality? Since when did we live in a country where the default was to ban an activity because a potential exists for illegal actions?

The above RIAA statement admits that "non-infringing purposes" for hacking exists. Boucher's FAIR USE bill will legalize those actions and should be fully supported.

Update: The great Tim Lee has a nice story detailing the shortcomings of the FAIR USE Act. I think it is only reasonable that Boucher has taken this weakened approach to amending the DMCA as he has failed twice in the past. I see the FAIR USE Act as a good first step.

More on this as it comes in...