Reform the DMCA

When a bunch of old dudes (and a few old women) in Washington make laws about technology, they're highly likely to screw it up. Lobbyists they can understand (cha-CHING); fair use of copyrighted digital content is a little more difficult. So you get nonsense like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is offering an easy way to contact your local representative regarding a reform bill known as the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (HR 1201), which would reform some of the stupidity of the DMCA:

"HR 1201 would give citizens the right to circumvent copy-protection measures as long as what they're doing is otherwise legal. For example, it would make sure that when you buy a CD, whether it is copy-protected or not, you can record it onto your computer and move the songs to an MP3 player. It would also protect a computer science professor who needs to bypass copy-protection to evaluate encryption technology. In addition, the bill would codify the Betamax defense, which has been under attack by the entertainment industries in the 'INDUCE Act' and the MGM v. Grokster case. This kind of sanity would be a welcome change to our copyright law."

Click the link and make your voice heard!