[WEB4LIB] Re:taking prisoners in the e-book war

[rich at richardwiggins.com]

The DMCA by itself is, of course, not international law.  The argument was made that it is unreasonable for one country to arrest someone for an offense that violates its laws, when that offense took place outside that nation's borders.  I gave three examples where you'd be a lot less likely to jump to that conclusion.  Let's forget the digital aspect.  Suppose Harry Potter had been published by a German author, and someone in Australia printed a million copies in open violation of copyright.  If that act violates German law, and the pirate arrives on German soil, then I think Germany ought to be able to arrest 'em. 
 
Again, I think parts of the DMCA ought to be overturned or repealed.  I don't follow the argument that any law that has extraterritorial reach is per se unreasonable.  It may be poor policy or bad international relations, but I don't think laws with extraterritorial reach are prohibited under international law. 
 
As for international aspects, the DMCA was originally titled "the WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act."  It wasn't launched in a vacuum in the US.  Here is the relevant section of the WIPO copyright treaty: 
 
Article 11  
 
Obligations concerning Technological Measures  
 
Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention 
and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.	
 
No doubt the US legislation is titled more towards media and software companies, but DMCA was the implementing legislation in the US for a very international treaty.  WIPO lists 177 member states today: 
 
http://www.wipo.org/members/members/ 
 
The list does not include Afghanistan, but the Taliban has made most of the materials that might be subject to copyright illegal to own at all. I am curious as to the specifics of enabling legislation in other countries.   
 
All along the mid-90s the library community raised strong fair use objections to WIPO and DMCA, and argued that unacceptable prosecutions would follow. They were right.
 
/rich 
 
On Tue, 24 July 2001, Jennifer Heise wrote: 
 
>  
>  
> >Or that logic would allow a community of nations to bring Slobodan Milosevic to 
trial >in the Hague. 
> ...  
> >As to the reach of international law, where you stand depends on where you sit. 
>  
> When did the DMCA become INTERNATIONAL Law? 

_____________________________________________________

Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing, and Lecturing on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com  http://richardwiggins.com