The Register: Alan Cox Attacks the European DMCA

[ Thanks to Jason Greenwood for this link. ]

"Alan Cox has issued a wake up call to the Linux community amid concerns that the pending European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) could stymie open source development.

"The directive, which was approved last year, extends European copyright legislation so that it is even more restrictive than America's controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), critics argue. National governments have until December 22 to incorporate the directive in national legislation.

"If it goes through unmodified, the EUCD would make it a criminal offence to break or attempt to break the copy protection or Digital Rights Management systems on digital content such as music, software or eBooks. As it stands, the EUCD may lead to a rerun of Dmitri Sklyarov's prosecution, prevent teachers copying materials for their students or other legitimate uses of copyright material, opponents believe..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• LWN: Alan Cox Resigns from ALS Committee, "Maddog" Hall Disagrees(Jul 20, 2001)
• TechLaw Journal: Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia on the DMCA and Fair Use Doctrine(Mar 08, 2001)
• LinuxWorld: Protest draws attention to DMCA(Mar 30, 2000)