Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007

Why yes, that is indeed the short title of the Act in the title of this post. The Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007, introduced in the House by Representatives Boucher (D-VA), Doolittle (R-CA) and Lofgren (D-CA), amends several clauses of the DMCA primarily for the purpose of adding rights for consumers. I know, the DMCA giving rights to consumers (I thought it was fiction, too!).

This Act was also discussed on /. over here.

The Act is short but packed with plenty of DMCA and Fair Use goodness. Under the Copyright Infringement section of the Act there is a new classification for hardware:

(g) Certain Hardware Devices- No person shall be liable for copyright infringement based on the design, manufacture, or distribution of a hardware device or of a component of the device if the device is capable of substantial, commercially significant noninfringing use.

Modchip manufacturers, rejoice. Modification of hardware is not infringing if the hardware is primarily for non-infringing use. The DMCA Amendments section also makes additional Fair Use provisions:

(i) an act of circumvention that is carried out solely for the purpose of making a compilation of portions of audiovisual works in the collection of a library or archives for educational use in a classroom by an instructor;
(ii) an act of circumvention that is carried out solely for the purpose of enabling a person to skip past or to avoid commercial or personally objectionable content in an audiovisual work;
(iii) an act of circumvention that is carried out solely for the purpose of enabling a person to transmit a work over a home or personal network, except that this exemption does not apply to the circumvention of a technological measure to the extent that it prevents uploading of the work to the Internet for mass, indiscriminate redistribution;
(iv) an act of circumvention that is carried out solely for the purpose of gaining access to one or more works in the public domain that are included in a compilation consisting primarily of works in the public domain;
(v) an act of circumvention that is carried out to gain access to a work of substantial public interest solely for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research; or
(vi) an act of circumvention that is carried out solely for the purpose of enabling a library or archives meeting the requirements of section 108(a)(2), with respect to works included in its collection, to preserve or secure a copy or to replace a copy that is damaged, deteriorating, lost, or stolen.

These statements make it legal to bypass anti-piracy protections (such as those on DVDs, which would normally violate the provisions of the DMCA) for various provisions covered by Fair Use doctrine.

• Compilations made by teachers for use in a classroom.
• Re-authoring to skip commercial or objectionable content (e.g. removing previews from your own DVDs)
• Backups made solely to transfer over a home or personal network (e.g. backup copies of works to backup to other computers you own)
• Re-authoring a work to get access to part of a public domain compilation
• Copying for the purpose of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research
• Libraries creating copies of works for preservation

It's always nice to see new Fair Use legislation being looked at. Here's hoping it goes further.