Sent to the Copyright Office today: DMCA Comments by Computers & Communications Industry Association [Excerpt from: http://cryptome.org/dmca-ccia.htm] "The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) strongly supported ratification and implementation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, both of which were intended to update the Berne Copyright Convention to improve protections for digital works such as computer software and compact disks. The WIPO Copyright Treaty affirms that computer programs and other digital works are due full copyright protection under the Berne Convention. The WIPO treaty also clarifies transmission rights for copyrighted works in digital, electronic formats, and requires "adequate and effective" remedies to protect against the circumvention of anti-copying technologies and alteration or removal of electronic rights management information. Following the adoption of the WIPO treaties at the 1996 Diplomatic Conference, the Administration introduced implementing legislation in the 105th Congress. However, these bills, S. 1121 and H.R. 2281, went beyond the revisions necessary to conform American law to our treaty obligations and conferred broad new rights on the owners of copyrighted material. As introduced, these bills would have made it illegal for competitors to analyze operating systems or software platforms for the purpose of creating interoperable products. Computer scientists conducting encryption research and security testing would have also been in danger of running afoul of the law. In addition, online service providers could have been subject to broad liability for the actions of others engaging in copyright piracy utilizing their services, regardless of whether the service provider played any role or had any knowledge of such activity. Working on behalf of its members, CCIA was actively involved throughout consideration of this legislation (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) . In addition to working to limit the legislation's impact on the broad issues of service providers' liability and fair use, CCIA and other interested parties were able to preserve the practice of reverse engineering for interoperability purposes. CCIA also spearheaded the effort leading to the exceptions for encryption research and security testing. We believed then, and continue to believe, that this language is essential to maintaining innovation and competition in the information technology industry. We also cautioned that the need for additional exceptions -- based on unforeseen developments and innovation in technology -- would almost certainly arise. As we anticipated, since the enactment of the DMCA by Congress the progress of technology has evinced the need for additional exceptions to the circumvention prohibitions in the statute. Legitimate efforts to deliver new and innovative products to the market and to consumers have been thwarted or have been challenged as violations of the Copyright Act as amended by the DMCA." -- Jason Mahler Vice President and General Counsel Computer & Communications Industry Association [EMAIL PROTECTED] Computer & Communications Industry Association members: Amdahl Corporation AT&T Corporation Bell Atlantic Corporation Block Financial Corporation CAI/SISCoCerebellum Software Commercial Data Servers, Inc. CommonRoad Corporation Datum, Inc. Entegrity Solutions Corporation Fujitsu Limited Giga Information Group Government Sales Consultants, Inc. Hitachi Data Systems, Inc. Intuit, Inc. MERANTNet Com Solutions International, Inc. NOKIA, Inc. Nortel Networks NTT America, Inc. Okidata Oracle Corporation Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tantivy Communications, Inc. Telesciences, Inc. Sabre Inc. TSI International Software, Ltd. VeriSign, Inc. Viatel, Inc. ViON Corporation Yahoo! Inc.
