Posted 11:17 AM

A Texan, a Republican and a good guy!

Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX), who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, announced on Tuesday that he was strongly in favor of reducing the reach of the Digital millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) saying that consumers should have the same fair use rights for digital data as they do for printed data.

Barton's backing should give strong impetus to Rep. Rick Boucher's (R-Va) bill to scale back DMCA. It's time to stop treating consumers as if they all were criminals by outlawing technology and, instead, focus on outlawing criminal activity. What a concept!