ACLU Challenges Digital Copyright Law

By: Justin Pope, AP Business Writer (AP) The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Tuesday challenging a controversial 1998 federal law that forbids the dissemination of information that could be used to bypass copy-protection schemes.

The suit, filed in Boston federal court on behalf of a computer scientist, argues that programmers and researchers should have free-speech protections to explore weaknesses in programs and share their research with others.

It challenges both the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the license of N2H2 Inc., a Seattle company that makes a program used to block Web sites for public libraries and state governments.

The programmer, Benjamin Edelman, a researcher at Harvard University, hoped to research alleged flaws in N2H2's software, but was denied a list of the sites the software blocks.

"Mr. Edelman's proposed research, which should be fully protected by the First Amendment, puts him at risk of liability under the DMCA," as well as a previous federal copyright act, state law, and a nonnegotiable license with N2H2, the suit states.

The suit seeks a declaratory judgment and an injunction that would allow Edelman to proceed with his research.

The DMCA has been used to prosecute a Russian programmer who released a program that disabled protections in Adobe Systems Inc.'s e-book software. Dmitry Sklyarov reached a deal under which he must give a deposition and possibly testify for the government in another case.

Edward Felten, a Princeton University professor who has examined anti-piracy technology, has made a similar request for court permission to talk about his research.

"Current copyright law and blocking software licenses prevent consumers from looking under the hood of the blocking products they buy," said Ann Beeson of the ACLU. "These products do not work as advertised, and consumers have a right to know [what] they're really buying."

David Burt, a spokesman for N2H2, said the company had not reviewed the suit and had no immediate comment.

"We support the DMCA," said Jeri Clausing, a spokeswoman for the Business Software Alliance. "It's been through a lot of court tests. We'll be following the newest case closely."