CNET News.com: DMCA: We’re not all criminals (Jon ‘maddog’ Hall on the DMCA)

“The United States already has laws to protect against
copyright and patent invasion. It has laws to protect against
import of pirated CDs and other intellectual property. Countries
like China are beginning to generate their own laws to cut down on
rampant pirating as they try to enter the WTO. This is a bad time
to instigate new laws that remove the legitimate right of someone
like myself to fair use of the music and intellectual property that
I purchase.

I think we need to fix the DMCA, then enforce the laws we have
already, rather than generate more restrictive laws that remove the
freedoms that generated the economy we enjoy today. Increase the
penalties on copyright infringement, but don’t make people
criminals for the inoffensive use of fair-use copying.”

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