Congress is currently considering a bill that would modify the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) to be a little bit more consumer friendly. The Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act (sponsored by Rick Boucher, congressman from my home district) would:

• Require clear, visible labels for "copy-protected" audio compact discs that identify their limitations and applicable return policies.
• Restore consumers' fair use rights by amending Section 1201 of the DMCA to allow circumvention of copy protection for non-infringing uses of the material. For example, it would allow someone to bypass the copy protection on a lawfully purchased DVD in order to view it on a computer running Linux.
• The bill's CD labeling provisions will make certain that consumers know what they are getting when they buy music CDs. If record labels choose to sell "copy protected" CDs that offer consumers less for their money than the CDs they are accustomed to, these dysfunctional CDs should, at a minimum, be prominently labeled.
• The bill also amends the DMCA to make it clear that technological protections should not trump the public's traditional fair use rights under copyright law. Since the DMCA's passage in 1998, it has been used not against copyright pirates, but instead to chill the legitimate activities of scientists, journalists, and computer programmers. Rep. Boucher's bill will go a long way toward restoring in the digital world the traditional balance between the rights of the public and those of copyright owners.

For the full text of the bill, check here.