If one professor has it his way, UB will rally behind an amendment to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
John Ringland, chairman of the Faculty Senate's Computer Services Committee, urged the Faculty Senate on Tuesday to support the Digital Media's Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA) as an alternative to the previous act, accepted in 1998. The old act "criminalizes the act of obtaining direct access to copyrighted information, and even public-domain information for legitimate non-copyright infringing purposes."
If passed, the Consumers' Rights Act would make it legal to download or distribute copyrighted material to be used in a legal manner.
"Prior to the enactment of the DMCA, you were perfectly entitled to do whatever you wanted to do with your content, as long as it didn't infringe upon copyright," Ringland said. "The bad thing about the DMCA is that circumventing the encryption is illegal even if you are not using it to violate copyright."
Under the old act, for example, copying protected material into a Microsoft Word document to be credited and used in a paper is illegal.
"The (old) act is tremendously bad," Ringland said. "The DMCA is an enormous power grab by publishers."
In addition, Ringland urged the Faculty Senate to oppose the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), which he said will take the old act a step further.
The objective of the CBDTPA - often called the Hollings Act, since Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) proposed it - is to make information available at a price, he said. Under it, book publishers hope to make students and professors pay to use e-texts.
"In the extreme case, there will be no difference between a library and a bookstore," said Ringland.
However, Alan Adler, vice president of legal and government affairs of the Association of American Book Publishers, said these fears are exaggerated.
"The truth is, most material is available in analog print as well," Adler said. "We don't view this as a regulatory issue. The 'worst-case scenarios' are vastly overstated."
Adler said copyright restrictions are not going to create a future where text is only available in e-format and can only be used according to publishers' rules.
"We need to take into consideration that this is a market," Adler said. "There are different companies competing with each other in the market, and no industry ignores its competition in the marketplace."
However, Ringland likened these copyright acts to Big Brother-style surveillance, and believes the older version of the copyright act limits what educators can do with a particular text, which conflicts with the academic duty of both students and professors.
"Scholarly activity relies on the direct access of information, not mediated by the content provider," said Ringland.
Ringland said he hopes high-ranking officials such as President William R. Greiner and Provost Elizabeth Capaldi will take an active voice supporting the Consumers' Rights Act and denouncing the Hollings Bill.
Emile Berk, a freshman sociology major, said she thinks UB should take a stand against the Hollings Bill.
"When documents are constantly circulating, and being used for educational reasons, (the Hollings Bill) hinders the school's ability to further the students education," Berk said.
According to Faculty Senate Chairman Michael Cohen, the voice of the UB administration could be key in deciding the fate of the legislation.
"The only thing that legislators listen to is effective lobbying," Cohen said. "I think it is an extraordinary part of the legislative process."
"I am definitely against (the Hollings Bill), and in UB's situation, since it's happening on campus, they should be concerned, too," said Matthew Peterson, a freshman psychology major.
Ringland said the committee does not advocate infringing copyrights. "We are just trying to allow for the means that were traditionally used," he said. "We are trying to get back to the way things were prior to the DMCA."
Adler said the DMCA is a way to ensure that the rights of published authors are not violated and is not a means of restricting access of information to the public.
"We need to recognize and enforce the rights of authors in the digital environment," Adler said. "The DMCA was created because copyright owners were concerned that they would not be able to protect their works in digital format."
According to Adler, the DMCA is responsible for the advancement in text technology available today. "Web sites are now providing access to new materials online," he said. "This would not have occurred without the comfort level provided to authors by the DMCA."
Ultimately, if the public is not happy with the copyright acts, Adler said online materials would flounder.
"If readers aren't happy with the way text is offered to them by one publisher, they will go to another," Adler said. "If a consumer isn't happy with the format, the publisher won't be able to sell it. As a result, they will change it to a way that addresses the user's needs."
The Faculty Senate will vote on this issue later in the month.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
