Limits and omissions in the current law on digital copyright -- the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA -- have prompted many legislators to suggest that it be amended. Some of the most well-known proposals include:

Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act

Sponsored by Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., and five other senators, including California's Dianne Feinstein, this act would mandate embedded copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic devices and PCs. The act gives device manufacturers, consumer groups and copyright owners one year to agree on security system standards. If they cannot, the FCC will step in and establish the standards. It would then be a civil offense to create or sell any kind of computer equipment that does not include those security technologies. The act also creates new federal felonies covering anyone who distributes copyrighted material with security measures disabled or who has a network-attached computer that disables copy protection. In January, a coalition of companies (including Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Intel) and libertarian and conservative advocacy groups formed the Alliance for Digital Progress to oppose the legislation.

Anticounterfeiting Amendments of 2002

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del., introduced this legislation, co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, among others. The bill would prohibit tampering with or altering an "authentication feature" used by a copyright owner to prove that a product is not counterfeit. This would extend the concept of counterfeit to digital intellectual property and create a private right of action for copyright owners. Opposition to this bill centers around its restrictions on institutional exceptions to the Copyright Act and its imposition of more severe penalties than the Copyright Act for the same behavior.

Peer-to-Peer Piracy Prevention Act

Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., who represents California's 26th district (Van Nuys/North Hollywood), introduced this bill to stop illegal trading of files without shutting down peer-to-peer file trading networks. The bill gives copyright owners the freedom to use technological tools to block or interfere with unauthorized availability or use of copyrighted works on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer network. Opponents characterize this as giving media industry engineers the right to attack home and business computers much as hackers do now.

Digital Choice and Freedom Act

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., introduced this bill to apply the principles of fair use to analog and digital transmissions. The bill also amends the DMCA to permit circumvention of protected digital media for personal use, and it asserts the rights of consumers to copy CDs, DVDs and other digital works for legitimate purposes. Lofgren's district, the 16th, includes San Jose and Silicon Valley, but while this bill is considered a computer industry response to Hollywood-backed bills, so far it does not appear to have the support of any well-funded organizations.

Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act

Rep. Dick Boucher, D-Va., and Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., introduced this bill, which has the backing of many library organizations, as well as a number of information technology giants (Intel, Sun) and consumer electronics companies (Phillips). The bill requires that copy-protected digital content be labeled as such and amends the DMCA to permit the circumvention of access and copy controls in situations such as research, where that circumvention will not result in copyright infringement. The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a civil liberties group that focuses on new media, also supports this bill.

Technology Consumer Bill of Rights

Sen. Ron Wyden, D–Ore., and Rep. Christopher Cox, R–Calif., introduced this bipartisan bill to assert the rights of consumers to use digital media --including CDs, DVDs, e-books and digital TV -- as freely as non-digital or analog media for non-commercial purposes. Time shifting, space shifting and the creation of backup copies are all exempted under this legislation. Jack Valenti of the MPAA has spoken against this resolution, while consumer organizations have praised it.

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