Internet Archive Gets DMCA Exemption

Paul Hickman writes "The Internet Archive has successfully lobbied for a DMCA exemption for the Software Archive. The IA keeps out-of-date programs, games and other random craziness for future programmers to savor. At the rapid pace of software development, this makes sure that we can create a history for us to remember and wonder at the programming of early games."

Re:Can they ignore takedown orders?

[Elektroschock]

In the European Union we currently watch the next stage of madness. They prepared legislation which would turn all intentional infringements of an IP right into a criminal offense. [ffii.org] No fair use exemptions yet.

Article 3 Offences
Member States shall ensure that all intentional infringements of an intellectual property right on a commercial scale, and attempting, aiding or abetting and inciting such infringements, are treated as criminal offences.

Let's see whether parliament will fix it. I hope that at least the following amendment will be accepted:

Article 3, paragraph 2 (new)

Amendment
Member States shall ensure that the fair and
reasonable use of a protected work including
such use by reproduction in copies or audio
or by any other means, for purposes such as
criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching
(including multiple copies for classroom use),
scholarship, archiving, format conversion or
research will not be treated as a criminal
offence.

Justification:

Paragraph 1 of Article 3 describes what shall be treated as a criminal offence. New paragraph 2
affirms desirable fair uses which shall never get punished by criminal sanctions, and are vital for
a free and open society. Amendment derived from to 17 U. S.C. 107

Please write to Member of the Legal Affairs Committee [europa.eu] and ask them to support or table the amendment. Lobbying at the right time can prevent a lot of problems which occur when the law will be executed. Then you or your business will get into danger. Please ask MEPs to support the fair use provision!

Re:Yes, and I, uh, need one also...

[Threni]

Wikipedia DOES know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H [wikipedia.org]

(search for `jokingly`)

Re:Not just IA

[Anonymous Coward]

No. The exemption applies only to nonproft library or archival use. You don't get to just freely distribute copies over the internet, particularly not from a website with a bunch of ads running on it.

All 6 exemptions

[WaXHeLL]

1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university's film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors. 2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. 3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights November 17, 2006 Page 2 damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. 4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book's read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format. 5. Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network. 6. Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

Re:Can they ignore takedown orders?

[PurpleMonkeyKing]

They made the exception for obsolete computer programs/games among others. Their definition of obsolete is:

A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

Takedown orders will still hold, if the content is still manufactured. Well, at least they don't have to wait until it reaches public domain!

The first few pages of the official document [copyright.gov] (pdf warning) give more details.

Re:Who funds the Internet Archive?

[blackest_k]

http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php [archive.org]

Alexa Internet has been crawling the web since 1996, which has resulted in a massive archive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet [wikipedia.org]

Alexa Internet is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com, that is best known for operating a website (www.alexa.com) that provides information on the web traffic to other websites. Alexa collects information from users who have installed an Alexa Toolbar, allowing them to provide statistics on web site traffic, as well as lists of related links.

http://www.imilly.com/alexa.htm [imilly.com]
Is Alexa spyware?
Well, no ... probably not. At least not if you haven't deliberately installed some of their software.

But Lavasoft's Ad-Aware identifies a standard registry key included with Internet Explorer as "Data Miner" spyware, with little or no further explanation, and offers to delete it. I hope this page offers a better explanation, and other alternatives to deletion. Spybot identifies it too, with more explanation, and they have a smarter strategy to deal with it (more below).
The issue is the 'Related Links' feature of IE (pre-XP SP2) which appears as the 'Tools'/'Show Related Links' menu item (and a corresponding toolbar button if you added it from the 'Customize...' link on the toolbar). If you use that feature, IE will contact the Alexa servers, via MSN, to obtain information about other web pages which seem to be related, open an Explorer Bar, and display those (plus adverts and whatnot). Go check the Alexa web site to see if you think that is a good idea (and, just to be clear, I think it's a very sucky idea), or just to double-check that you haven't deliberately or unintentionally or absent-mindedly installed some of their software.

Essentially it a two edged sword.
you have the positive in the internet archive which is kind of a byproduct from alexas data mining activitys

It didnt have to be created at all but Alexas authors figured we wouldnt mind if they tracked our visits to different sites if they gave something useful back (The Internet Archive). ..

Re:Can they ignore takedown orders?

[colinbrash]

A "short sample creatively integrated into a new song" is most definitely not covered by fair use. Artists/producers need to get permission to use (copyrighted) samples.

Re:Can they ignore takedown orders?

[PitaBred]

This one is up for argument (even though I agree that it should be fair.) What is more relevant: How about someone who quotes some words in a song in a review, or a snipped of it? They're profiting from it by selling their article, but it's still well under the umbrella of fair use. Commercial entities are still entitled to fair use.