ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE
U.S. Office of Public Policy of the Association for Computing
Machinery

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September 24, 2000 Volume 4.6

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CONTENTS
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INTRODUCTION

POLICY BRIEFS:
DeCSS Judgment For Plaintiffs
DMCA Comment Period Closes
Napster Receives Stay; Trial Date Set
ICANN At-Large Election Draws Near
Berkman Center Announces ICANN Candidate Debates
Request For Comments On .us CCTLD
WIPO's RFC For Second Domain Name Process

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INTRODUCTION
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The Association for Computing Machinery is an international
professional society whose 80,000 members (60,000 in the U.S.)
represent a critical mass of computer scientists in education,
industry, and government. The USACM provides a means for promoting
dialogue on technology policy issues with United States policy makers

and the general public. The WASHINGTON UPDATE reports on activities
in Washington, which may be of interest to those in the computing and
information policy communities and will highlight USACM's involvement
in many of these issues.

To subscribe to the ACM WASHINGTON UPDATE send an e-mail to
listserv@acm.org with "subscribe WASHINGTON-UPDATE" (no quotes) in the
body of the message. Back issues are available at:
http://www.acm.org/usacm

For information about joining the Association for Computing Machinery,
see: http://www.acm.org/membership/join.html

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POLICY BRIEFS
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DECSS JUDGEMENT FOR PLAINTIFF

The decision for the plaintiffs in University City Studios, Inc v.
Reimerdes was issued on August 17. Judge Kaplan, the federal judge in
Southern District Court of New York who decided the case, ruled that the
defendent, operator of the Hacker Quarterly, could no longer post or link
to DeCSS, a program which decrypts DVDs and permits their playback on
Linux operating systems and could facilitate transmission of the DVDs'
content on the Internet. While the federal judge held that computer
code such as DeCSS was speech, its non-expressive aspects could
nevertheless be regulated, citing a Supreme Court case that found that burning
draft cards was also speech, but its functional aspects could
nevertheless be regulated.

The court acknowledged that the law that prohibited DeCSS, the
anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
interfered with fair use and that fair use is intimately related to free
speech. The court, however, found that the defendent did not have standing
to challenge the DMCA.

An appeal is planned.

The decision is available at:
http://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/courtweb/pdf/D02NYSC/00-08117.PDF

Many documents associated with this important case, such as a list of
deposed witnesses, their testimony, declarations and trial transcripts,
are available at:
http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/NY/

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DMCA COMMENT PERIOD CLOSES
In related news, the Copyright Office stopped accepting comments on
the effect of Sections 109 and 117 of Title 17, or the Copyright title.
Section 109 is the codification of the "first sale doctrine," which
permits consumers to dispose of an individual work they have legally
pruchased as they see fit. Section 117 permitted the reproduction of computer
programs solely or archival purposes (which permits the backup of
notorious fraile computer readable media.)
 
The comments were submitted to the Copyright Office through a joint
study required by Section 104 of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act. The report on the study is due in Congress on October 28, 2000. The
same day, provisions making the act of circumvention illegal take
effect. While distribution of DeCSS and other circumventing
technologies is currently grounds for a lawsuit, on October 28, use of DeCSS (or
other circumventing technologies) will become criminal.

Public comments on the DMCA's effect on Sections 109 and 117 are
available at:
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/reports/studies/dmca/dmca_study.html

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NAPSTER RECEIVES STAY; TRIAL DATE SET

Napster, an online music search engine that facilitates the
peer-to-peer file sharing of .mp3 files, received a stay of the federal district
court of the Northern District of California's order to shut down from
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Agreeing with eighteen members of
the Recording Industry Association of America, the lower court issued a
order enjoining Napster from facilitating the search for music files on
August 10.

The court date for the court of appeals is set for October 2.

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ICANN AT-LARGE ELECTION DRAWS NEAR

ICANN elections for the At-Large board members will be conducted
October 1 to October 10. From September 9 to October 10, voters can submit
questions to candidates, in order to lean more about candidate views.

Past ACM President and USACM Co-Chair Barbara Simons is a candidate
for the North American At-Large election region.

ICANN's Question & Answer forum is available at:
http://members.icann.org/qa.html

A list of At-Large nominees and their biographies is available at:
http://members.icann.org/nominees.html

A schedule of the At-Large elections is available at:
http://members.icann.org/schedule.html

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BERKMAN CENTER ANNOUNCES ICANN CANDIDATE DEBATES

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and
the Internet Democracy Project have announced a debate between North
American candidates for the At-Large board member at Harvard Law School.
The debates will be conducted on October 2, and will include both a
formal debate moderated by Jonathan Zittrain and a Presidential
Commission-style debate where candidates will field questions from a set of
distinguished panelists, including cyber-journalist Declan McCullagh.

A schedule of the debates is available at:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum/

Webcast requirements can be viewed at:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/candidateforum/webcast.asp

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REQUEST FOR COMMENTS ON .us CCTLD

The Department of Commerce has requested comments on the use of the
.us ccTLD.Currently, the use of the ccTLD is limited to the federal
government, states and localities and commercial domain name holders who
have received prior approval from a local public authority. The current
administration has ordered the DOC to review the possibility of
privatizing management and facilitating international use. The request for
comments reviews several aspects of the managment of the .us ccTLD.

The comment period ends on October 6, 2000.

More information is available at:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/usrfc2/dotusrfc2.htm

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WIPO'S RFC FOR SECOND DOMAIN NAME PROCESS

The World Intellectual Property Organization initiated its Request for
Comments on its Second Process on domain name policy on July 10, 2000.
The Second Process considers certain aspects of domain name beyond
trademarks, including geographical indications (such as wine-producing
regions) and personality rights (such as the names of celebrities), the
names and acronyms of international intergovernmental organizations (such
as the United Nations), International Nonproprietary Names (INNs) set
down by the World Health Organization for pharmaceutical substances, so
as to protect patient safety worldwide and unfair competition law and
the rights established under international treaties.

More information on WIPO's Second Process RFC is available at:
http://wipo2.wipo.int/process2/

All comments on WIPO's Second Process are available at:
http://listbox.wipo.int/wilma/process2-comments/2000/

Past ACM President and USACM Co-Chair Barbara Simons comments on the
Second Process is available at:
http://listbox.wipo.int/wilma/process2-comments/2000/msg00193.html

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Washington Update is a biweekly publication of the U.S. Public Policy
Office of the Association for Computing. http://www.acm.org/usacm.