Sick of Digital Rights Management and closed technology platforms? A new Fair Use Act will pay little more than lip service to the digital constipation suffered by media users today.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 gave digital media users a black eye that has yet to heal. The intention of the act passed by Senate under the Clinton administration was to protect the content providers from piracy. It gave teeth to copyright laws by criminalizing the reproduction of copyrighted property. It has given rise to the confusing network of DRM and interoperability issues that hound us today.

DCMA has been criticized for creating an anti-competitive climate in modern consumer electronics. Closed platforms means one companies hardware is free to prevent any other company from creating media for it. So, consumers are stuck only buying iTunes for their iPod instead of forcing iTunes to compete with other media providers.

U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher (D-VA) and John Doolittle (R-CA) actually did a fair bit by announcing the Freedom And Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007. The act is being called the Fair Use Act. The Reps cite imbalances in copyright laws weighted against the public’s right to fair use of legally purchased material.

Take your finger off that ‘Backup’ button

The Fair Use Act will only amend the current version of the DMCA offering a few lightweight but sensible allowances. It’ll allow you to circumvent the following:

• Software requiring the disk to run
• Phones firmware that ties hardware to a wireless service
• e-books that require specific screen reader software
• anti copy technology for educational purposes
• DRM software on audio CDs where harmful to computers

The only real limitation to DRM in music is where audio CDs add their own. This would make it illegal for Sony to ever do a Rootkit again. The Fair Use Act isn’t enough, but it’s a start. As small a compromise as the Fair Use Act would be it's not enough for the RIAA to oppose the measure, of course.