Author Archives: Rick Boucher

Whenever I speak with librarians about fair use or the Copyright Act more generally, I inevitably hear them express concerns that we run the risk of becoming a pay per use society, one in which content is available only for a fee. I am concerned that the bookmobiles we all grew up with and their modern day equivalents will go the way of the eight track and the reel-to-reel, replaced by a world in which access to information will depend on the ability to pay and, worse, a world in which a payment gets you only a license to view… Continue reading →

Next year, Congress will begin the difficult process of rewriting the Telecommunications Act of 1996. As a Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (as well as the Judiciary Committee), I see this exercise as an enormously valuable opportunity to fashion new federal guidelines for the era of Internet-based communications. In anticipation of this debate, I have joined with Representative Cliff Stearns of Florida in drafting H.R. 4757, the Advanced Internet Communications Services Act. The legislation would stimulate investment in, and encourage the rapid deployment of, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and other Advanced Internet Communcations Services. We begin… Continue reading →

Out of concern that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act went too far in restricting fair use in the digital era, I have drafted and introduced along with John Doolittle of California H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act. Among other objectives, the bill would confirm that a person would not be deemed to have illegally “circumvented” technical protection measures guarding access to copyrighted works under Section 1201 of the DMCA as long as he or she had no intent to infringe the copyright in the work. Our bill also embodies the Supreme Court’s Betamax standard to insulate from liability… Continue reading →