The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.1046  Friday, 24 November 2006

From: 		Tanya Gough <
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Date: 		23 Nov 2006 06:09:31 -0800
Subject: 	U.S. Copyright Office Issues New Rights

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061122/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright

Cell Phone Reuse Among New Rights Issued
By ANICK JESDANUN,
AP Internet Writer
Wed. Nov 22, 5:34 PM ET

Cell phone owners can now break locks to use their handsets with competing 
carriers, while film professors have the right to copy snippets from DVDs 
for educational compilations, the U.S. Copyright Office said Wednesday.

Other rights declared in the government's triennial review of the 1998 
Digital Millennium Copyright Act seek to improve access for the blind and 
to obsolete works and let security researchers try to break 
copy-protection technologies embedded in CDs

All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six 
exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first 
time, the office gave an exemption to a group of users. Previously, 
Billington took an all-or-nothing approach, making them difficult to 
justify.

"I am very encouraged by the fact that the Copyright Office is willing to 
recognize exemptions for archivists, cell phone recyclers and computer 
security experts," said Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the 
civil-liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Frankly I'm 
surprised and pleased they were granted."

But he said he was disappointed the Copyright Office rejected a number of 
exemptions that could have benefited consumers, including one that would 
let owners of DVDs legally copy movies for use on Apple Computer Inc.'s 
iPod and other music players.

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