Congressional panel to weigh digital copyright

The harsh penalties for circumventing copyright protection technology could eventually be replaced with a fair-use-friendly "Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act."

Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer

Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.

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Declan McCullagh

May 10, 2004 5:06 p.m. PT

highly controversial "anti-circumvention" sections

A House of Representatives panel on Wednesday plans to hold what appears to be the first hearing devoted to critiquing the . Critics of the 1998 law are hoping to use the event to slam its highly controversial "anti-circumvention" sections--which generally prohibit bypassing copy-protection technology--and drum up support for an alternative called the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act.

First introduced by Rick Boucher, D-Va, and John Doolittle, R-Calif., in October 2002, the DMCRA would defang current law by permitting circumvention for "fair use" purposes. It has received a hostile reception from the entertainment industry and is not expected to be enacted this year. One reason: The consumer protection subcommittee convening this week's hearing does not have jurisdiction over copyright law.