Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Representative Christopher Cox (R-California) have introduced legislation in both US congressional bodies that would protect the rights of consumers to use digital media as freely as analog media. Seen as a direct challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), proposed legislation such as the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA), and forthcoming technologies like digital rights management (DRM), the Technology Consumer Bill of Rights would enforce consumers’ fair use rights in digital media.
Certain uses of a protected work that would ordinarily be seen as infringing are specifically allowed for education, criticism, etc. These uses are allowed under the “fair use” provision. The core concept of fair use is that, in general, any use that does not exploit the commercial value of the original is permissible.
The fair use statute recognizes four criteria by which a use can be determined to be fair or unfair:
- The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- The nature of the copyrighted work;
- The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted wok as a whole; and
- The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
While Wyden and Cox both support strong anti-piracy and copyright protections, both acknowledge that their proposed bill is based on the consumer rights outlined by DigitalConsumer.org.