Anti-Counterfeiting Provisions of IPPA 2004

Professor Lessig reports that Senator McCain is "floating an amendment, to limit the regulation of "illicit labels" to physical labels only. And he has proposed a savings clause, which states:"

Savings Clause.--Nothing in Section 2318 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by this title, shall be construed to restrict defenses or limitations on rights under title 17, United States Code, for a phonorecord, a copy of a computer program, a copy of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a copy of a literary work, a copy of a pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work, or a work of visual art, that a genuine certificate, licensing document, registration card, or similar labeling component is (1) affixed to, enclosing, or accompanying, or (2) designed to be affixed to, enclose, or accompany.

The issue is that "the act makes it an offence to distribute unauthorized copies of labels, then there's a very simple way for content owners to hack around fair use: embed a watermark into the content, and then any clip, even if fair use, would also constitute an unauthorized copy of a label. Thus, DMCA-like, what copyright law gives, this labeling law would take away."

See Lessig's post: More good McCain work