Re: Clinton signs draconian antipiracy law, from the Netly News

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 3:18 PM -0700 12/18/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>> One of the key provisions was that home taping, or archival taping, or
>> taping for any _noncommercial_ use was now fully legal, with not even the
>> hint of illegality.
>
>Instead of relying on your (admittedly) hazy recollections of the act, you
>might want to look at it again. If you have a cite, I'll plug it into
>Lexis.
>

As I said in my article, I recalled the name as being the "Home Recording
Act." A search shows several hundred hits on this, many dealing with the
implications for home taping. The implications of the HRA for home taping
of CDs and other music were discussed extensively in Cyberia and other fora.

The text at one of the URLs, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/ch10.html

shows this:

"� 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions

"No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of
copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a
digital
audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog
recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the
noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making
digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings. "


>It's clear from the plain text of the statute that the NET Act applies to
>nonprofit infringing ("reproduction or distribution") of copyrighted
>material. Archival purposes are perhaps not infringing. But dubbing 4,500
>CDs from copies borrowed from libraries, as your friend did, probably is.

Nope. It ain't. At least not of the HRA.

The HRA places no limits on the numbers of such tapings. All that matters
is that he is not selling or renting them out.

The HRA did not try to solve the "lost business" side of the equation, as
this is a hopeless fever swamp to wander into, as the alternate history of
whether my friend would have _bought_ the 4500 CDs is unknowable. Though,
knowing him, "Hell no." The blank tape tax was designed to be a minor piece
of compensation to the recording industry. The tape tax is paid by the tape
manufacturer or importer, not the customer, though of course the tax is
ultimately paid by the consumer.

(The extent to which the new law collides with the HRA is an issue, which I
addressed in my points about how can the CopyCops know when the copies were
made, etc.)


--Tim May


The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
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