Byte Rights: Friend in High Places

Posted 06/28/2009 at 11:00pm | by Quinn Norton

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For years, Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia wandered the desolate wilderness reserved for lawmakers who speak sensibly about copyright and the Internet. Well, given that criteria, the desolate wilderness was reserved for Rick Boucher. He’s been in Congress since 1983 and self-identifies as a techno-geek. Boucher is a different kind of politician—ours—loyal to a technology community few other representatives know exists. He has worked to legalize crypto export, expand rural broadband, support net neutrality, and has pushed back on copyright maximalism.

Boucher went so far as to say, “The recent extension of the copyright term by the Congress was wholly unjustified,” in a Slashdot interview in 2001. That’s right—Slashdot interview. Even Cory Doctorow described him as “the closest thing to a copyfighter in Congress.” (Boucher did vote for telecom immunity, confirming that no one is perfect.)

After the passage of the DMCA in 1998, Boucher spoke about how anti-circumvention measures eviscerated fair use, stymied innovation, and stifled speech, but it all fell on deaf ears.

Boucher tried to fix the DMCA with the DMCRA, or Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act, introduced to Congress in 2003 and 2005. The DMCRA explicitly allowed circumvention for non-infringing use, re-affirmed Betamax (the legal case, not the tape media), and required labeling of media with software that could, say, install a rootkit to prevent you from ripping your Sony BMG CD.

Both times it withered like a beautiful flower planted in the toxic sludge that is a house committee.

Boucher has always been mostly alone, but times are changing. Every new Congress brings the congressional shuffle, where people on congressional subcommittees you’ve never heard of jockey and swap positions overseeing particular specialties of lawmaking, hoping to bring home pork, enhance their political power, or even occasionally fight for a cause they believe in.

For the 111th Congress, Boucher will be chair of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. It doesn’t sound thrilling, but for the first time it’s a real launching point for legislation that could fix the DMCA, or at least make it slightly less evil. So, thanks, Virginia’s 9th district, for letting Rick come to the party.

Quinn Norton writes about copyright for Wired News and other publications. Her work has ranged from legal journalism to the inner life of pirate organizations.