Copyright Office inquiry may lead to changes in the
law that give consumers greater freedom over their belongings.
Most people think that buying
a toaster, say, lets you do anything you want with it. That may be wrong.
Copyright law may limit your rights even as to products you bought and paid
for.
Here’s why. That toaster, if
not a bottom-of-the-line model, probably has a digital controller to make sure
it heats your bread to a precise level of doneness. The controller runs
software. Whoever wrote that software acquired a copyright in it, now held by …
well, that’s hard to say. Perhaps the toaster manufacturer, or one of its
suppliers, or one of their suppliers in turn. But it’s not you. Chances are
that when you put down your credit card at Best Buy, although you obtained
clear ownership of the steel and plastic, you received only a license to use
the software, whose ownership remains elsewhere. In the extreme case, your
limited rights to the software could block you from selling the toaster at a
yard sale, or even giving it away.
This is nuts, right? If you
buy a toaster – or anything else – you should own it, period. Perhaps, but it’s
not as obvious to the authors of the copyright laws. Their fine print seems to
put unexpected conditions on your ownership. Recognizing the murkiness at this
intersection of copyright law and technology – particularly in view of the
ubiquity of software-laden items in our lives – U.S. Senators Grassley and
Leahy have asked the Copyright Office to review the effects of existing
copyright law on “everyday products.” Among other things, they want to know
whether the copyright laws enable or frustrate how products are designed and
distributed, their effect on innovative services, and how copyright intersects
with other laws in establishing how software-based products can be lawfully
used.
The Copyright Office has
previously addressed the consumer’s right to access and modify software in
items – cellphones, for instance, or tablets – where the existence of
the software, and the consumer’s potential interest in accessing it, are
obvious. It has also allowed car owners to modify the software in their vehicles. But Senators Grassley and
Leahy are thinking far more broadly than that, prompted by the fact that almost
everything you buy nowadays with a power cord or a battery is running software.
The Copyright Office wants to know what you think, with an eye to recommending
possible changes in the law. Its Notice of Inquiry reads like a law school term
paper, but you have our permission to skip ahead to the actual questions
starting in the right-hand column on page 77671. Comments are due by February 16, 2016, and reply comments by March 8. Instructions on how to submit your views
should be posted on this
website by February 1.
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