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Read and share online: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/activists-including-the-fsf-helped-secure-a-new-round-of-dmca-anticircumvention-exemptions
Dear Free Software Supporter,
We have some good news to share. The FSF was one of several activist
organizations pushing for exemptions to the anticircumvention rules
under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that make breaking
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) illegal, even for ethical and
legitimate purposes. We helped bring public awareness to a process
that is too often only a conversation between lawyers and bureaucrats.
As of late last week, there are now multiple new exemptions that will
help ease some of the acute abuse DRM inflicts on users. However, the
main lesson to be learned here is that we should and must keep
pushing. Individual, specific exemptions are not enough. The entire
anticircumvention law needs to be repealed. We want to thank the 230
individuals who co-signed their names to our comments supporting
exemptions across the board. We should take this as a sign that
even though it can be difficult, anti-DRM activism yields practical
results.
Section 1201 is one of the most nefarious sections of the DMCA. The
provisions contained in 1201 impose legal penalties against anyone
trying to circumvent the DRM on their software and devices or, in
other words, anyone who tries to control that software or device
themselves instead of leaving it up to its corporate overlords.
Section 1201 opens up those who try to study, repair, or research
restricted devices to potentially serious legal penalties. Something
that doesn't help matters is the intentionally complex series of hoops
concerned citizens, researchers, and activists around the world are
forced to jump through to voice objection to current
anticircumvention rules, or to propose new exemptions.
This bureaucratic nightmare is the only way to lobby for changes in
Section 1201, and the fact that it has to be done every three years
makes it a recurring one. Nothing abates the added terror of our being
granted use anticircumvention exemptions, but being forbidden to
share the tools that make this possible. It takes the hard work of
hundreds to secure the anticircumvention use exemptions we already
have, and even more work to eke out a few more. Yet thanks to the
support of citizens, activists, and researchers around the world, the
US Copyright Office has approved a few more, while at the same
time demonstrating the DMCA's serious flaws.
In coverage of the new round of anticircumvention exemptions
we've seen so far, something that stands out is the US Copyright
Office's approval for blind users to break the digital restrictions
preventing any ebooks from being processed through a screen reader. At
least at first glance, it looks like a big win for all of us concerned
with user freedom, but a closer look shows something more sinister, as
the US Copyright Office refused to make this exemption permanent. The
message this sends to all user freedom activists, but especially the
visually impaired among us, is: "we're giving you this now because it
would seem inhumane otherwise, but we hope that you'll forget to fight
for it later so we can allow corporations to keep on restricting you."
The grueling nature of the anticircumvention exemption hearings and
comment process would be enough to burn out any one person, which is
why we're grateful that the organizations fighting for user freedom
have interrelated work. The Free Software Foundation (FSF)'s work
campaigning for a user's right to use, study, share, and modify the
software that runs on their device has informed our support of the
right to repair movement. We hope that our work has inspired some
of the individuals and organizations participating in the comment
process. The participating organizations have been able to make
progress on other important exemptions, whether that's the right to
install free software on wireless routers or the right to repair
dedicated devices like game consoles.
It's the coalescing of groups like these that is "chipping away" at
Section 1201. At the same time, it's telling that we're forced to
fight tooth and nail for the meager exemptions we're granted, even
with such a broad base of support. The corporations who have a vested
interest in the DMCA and Congress itself are content with the status
quo, but we shouldn't be content with patches on a broken system.
Incremental progress against Section 1201 is of course a good thing,
but we shouldn't lose sight of our goal as user freedom activists: a
complete repeal of Section 1201, and all other laws that codify or
mandate DRM.
The Defective by Design campaign takes a radical stance when it
comes to DRM and the laws that support it. We believe that they should
not exist at all, under any circumstance, and we need your help to
support this mission. Each year we hold the International Day Against
DRM (IDAD) to raise public awareness and rally together anti-DRM
activists from around the globe, but we're a year-round campaign. If
you're ready to join the fight, here's what you can do to help:
Join us for the 2021 International Day Against DRM, which will be
held on December 10th this year, and participate in its upcoming
community planning meeting on November 10th; Join the DRM Elimination Crew email list to stay up to date on
our work against DRM; Let us know about your own anti-DRM activism or anticircumvention
work through a session at LibrePlanet 2022; Help us improve and revise the Guide to DRM-free Living
In freedom,
Greg Farough
Campaigns Manager
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