Sneaking Story

Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday.

Sounds good so far.

... let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books.

Sounds very good.

But von Lohmann said he was disappointed the Copyright Office rejected a number of exemptions that could have benefited consumers, including one that would have let owners of DVDs legally copy movies for use on Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod and other portable players.

OK, could have been even better. Maybe some day.

let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. CNN

Figures. There have been laws I very much liked when they expired. For example, the high capacity magazine on firearms. I'm still unclear if it is truly gone or in some way still in affect. I wonder if there will be a grass roots effort to keep these laws on the books.