Now, in a new set of exemptions pushed for by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the legal rights of those looking to do those things have been made clearer and – dare we say – more palatable. That includes the proviso that jailbreaking a device to run an app that has been made incompatible by the handset manufacturer is fair use, as is bypassing copy protection on media (such as DVDs) to excerpt sections for derivative fair use works
This is some big news, news I have been waiting for! You can read more about it here, and here, and here, heck do a google news search to see what is being written or search twitter to see what folks are saying about the news. What concerns me frankly with all of the hype, is that folks aren't going to take the time to read the whole 262 page document of recommendations from the Copyright Office. It is scary but I am sure Renee Hobbs will help put it in plain English for us! In the meantime, you may want to read this shorter Statement of the Librarian of Congress Relating to the Section 1201 Rulemaking
I read in one article "this doesn't make piracy legal. It just means that bypassing DRM to reach a legal goal -- i.e. fair use of things you own -- is now protected by common law."It is therefore becoming INCREASINGLY important for folks to have a better understanding of fair use and all that it encompasses as well as the process one needs to go through in determining whether their use is fair. Things are BOUND to get really interesting
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