According to National Journal, Rick Boucher (D-VA) said last week (the NJ's piece is dated "Friday, January 20, 2007, which is a bit odd, since there isn't one) that he planned to reintroduce legislation to reform the DMCA, or as NJ puts it, "repeal a ban against circumventing anti-piracy technologies on digital content." Of course, that characterization of the bill overstates its effects a bit. Boucher's bill from the last Congress, the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act or DMCRA (the cleverly-numbered H.R. 1201 (PDF)) basically would have created a non-infringing use exception to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA (i.e. 17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201), along with expanding some of the other existing exceptions. Some of the bill's opponents (like the MPAA, RIAA, PFF) claimed the bill would effectively repeal the DMCA, but that's not how the bill's text actually read or its author's stated goals in introducing the bill.
The last time around, H.R. 1201 had over a dozen cosponsors, on both sides of the aisle, including Joe Barton (R-TX) and John Doolittle (R-CA). Of course, Boucher had also previously introduced nearly identical bills in the 108th Congress (H.R. 107, with 24 cosponsors) and in the 107th (H.R. 5544, with 3 cosponsors). So far, none have made it out of committee. In 2005 and 2003, Boucher was also a cosponsor of Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) "Benefit Authors without Limiting Advancement or Net Consumer Expectations" or BALANCE Act (H.R. 4536 in the 109th, H.R. 1066 in the 108th) which also would have added a "noninfringing use" exception to the DMCA.
Although Boucher did not end up chairing the House IP subcommittee this year, as some had speculated/hoped he would, perhaps the change in House leadership, along with recent developments in the tech landscape (such as the popularity of Apple's "video" iPods, to which lots of people would love to be able to download video from their own legally-purchased DVDs, but can't under the DMCA), will give Boucher's bill some more legs this time, although it's hard to tell at this point.
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