It looks like the contradiction that is inherent in US law between Fair Use of copyrighted content and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act may be resolved by adding a new Fair Use act.
Two US Republicans will introduce a new version of legislation they tried to get passed before enshrining “fair use” of copyrighted works into law, but this time will add key changes so that all fair use falls away if anyone is caught interfering with copyright protections.
The bill will pull widespread support from the consumer electronics community but whether or not it will place any onus on content owners to offer technology that supports Fair Use, in other words the ability to make copies of content for use on multiple devices in the same home, is another matter.
The recent arrival of ‘domain’ aware DRM systems might make all of this legislation irrelevant in the long run, or it could enable Fair Use and the DMCA to no longer be at odds, but only if the content firms take up domain based DRM.