Error during command authentication.

I am forwarding the comment below from the Video Librarians’ listserv. It has to do with the wonderful work last year to obtain legal approval for getting around (circumventing) anti-copying codes on DVDs in order to produce high-quality clips for classroom use. Several people on LLTI helped by contributing comments on the need for this use in language courses (anyone who saw presentations at IALLT 2011 on the FL video clip library developments at BYU and Stanford will see how vital this can be). Please take a look at the  post below if you or your faculty use video clips in teaching and consider replying to Carrie. –Judy Shoaf

Libvidders:

I know it’s hard to believe but already we must prepare for the triennial 1201 rulemaking on circumvention of technological protection measures employed by rights holders.  

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-09-29/html/2011-25106.htm

For those new to the topic, here’s a brief rundown.

Every three years, the Copyright Office (CO) conducts a “rulemaking” which is a process initiated by a government agency to create or amend a rule or regulation. This process generally begins with a chance for the public to comment on the issue. ALA provides comments for a number of Notices for Public Rulemakings. 

When Congress drafted the DMCA they included a new chapter 12 of the Copyright Act that talks about anti-circumvention of TPMs.  It is a violation to break a TPM to gain access to a protected work.  Congress asked that the CO to conduct a rulemaking to discover if this law inferred with one’s rights to exercise a fair use or some other non-infringing use.  A good example of this is that people with print disabilities can circumvent e-books to enable text-to-speech functionality.  They have lawfully acquired the work but they can’t use it because of TPMs.

At the last rulemaking, it was determined by the Librarian of Congress (under the recommendation of the CO and Commerce) that faculty in all subject disciplines could break CSS on encrypted DVDs in order to make clip compilations for instruction or research purposes.  In addition, college students enrolled in media or film studies could also circumvent CSS to extract clips for educational purposes.  ALA made this recommendation based on a lot of feedback that we received from members of video lib.  (In fact, Gary Handman and Carlton Jackson testified).

This rule must be fought for again because the exemptions only last for 3 years.

I am collecting data on how this exemption has been working over the last couple of years. 

Do faculty at your institutions use clips in the classroom?  Why?

Are faculty less worried about the legality of using clips in the classroom?

Do you have examples of how the exemption helped an educator or student?

Currently this use is lawful so there is no reason to hide -- any examples you send to me should include faculty name, discipline and institution would be very helpful.

Some rights holders will argue that this exemption is no longer necessary because now one can obtain movie clips through lawful services on the Internet. Is this true?  Do existing clip services meet faculty needs?

I would appreciate any examples you could send my way via e-mail by November 15^th, 2011.  Let me know if you have questions.       

Many thanks!

-Carrie

Carrie Russell, Director

Program on Public Access to Information

American Library Association

Office for Information Technology Policy

1615 New Hampshire  Avenue NW, First Floor

Washington, DC 20009

202.628.8410/800.941.8478

202.628.8419 (fax)

crussell at alawash dot org