[Rumori] Victory for us in the academic world, now call yourselves "professors" and get cutting.

[Tim Maloney]

This just in from my sources:

From: Jeremy Butler <jbutler at ua.edu>
Date: Nov 24, 2006 4:24 AM
Subject: [SCREEN-L] Professors Authorized to Make Compilation DVDs  
 From Copy-Protected DVDs
To: SCREEN-L at bama.ua.edu

U.S. Copyright Office has just announced six new exemptions to copyright
law. One of them permits professors to break copy protection on DVDs in
order to make compilations to use in class.

The AP covered the story thus:

 >The exemption granted to film professors authorizes the breaking of  
the CSS
 > copy-protection technology found in most DVDs. Programs to do so  
circulate
 > widely on the Internet, though it has been illegal to use or  
distribute
 > them.
 >
 > The professors said they need the ability to create compilations  
of DVD
 > snippets to teach their classes — for example, taking portions of  
old and
 > new cartoons to study how animation has evolved. Such compilations  
are
 > generally permitted under "fair use" provisions of copyright law, but
 > breaking the locks to make the compilations has been illegal.
 >
 > Hollywood studios have argued that educators could turn to  
videotapes and
 > other versions without the copy protections, but the professors  
argued that
 > DVDs are of higher quality and may preserve the original colors or
 > dimensions that videotapes lack.
 >
 > "The record did not reveal any alternative means to meet the  
pedagogical
 > needs of the professors," [Librarian of Congress James H.]  
Billington wrote.


"U.S. Copyright Office issues new rights," by ANICK JESDANUN, AP  
Internet
Writer, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/ 
digital_copyright

The Library of Congress' official "Rulemaking on Exemptions from  
Prohibition
on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to
Copyrighted Works" says:

The Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of
 > Copyrights, has announced the classes of works subject to the  
exemption from
 > the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures  
that control
 > access to copyrighted works. Persons making noninfringing uses of the
 > following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition
 > against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1))  
during the
 > next three years.
 >
 > 1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a  
college or
 > university's film or media studies department, when circumvention is
 > accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of  
those
 > works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film
 > professors.
 >

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