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| Chilling Effects Clearinghouse > Anticircumvention (DMCA) > Weather Reports > "Stuffing" the DMCA "Turkey" with 6 New Exemptions a Day Before Thanksgiving | Location: https://www.chillingeffects.org/anticircumvention/weather.cgi?WeatherID=572 |
Jason H. Tokoro, Samuelson Law Technology & Public Policy Clinic - Boalt Hall, November 23, 2006
Abstract: On Wednesday, November 22, 2006, the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington (“Billington”), announced six new exemptions from the prohibition against circumvention of technological protection measures that control access to copyright works, as provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Six exemptions are the most that have been granted during a single rulemaking session. The exemptions will go into effect on November 27, 2006 and continue through October 27, 2009.
On Wednesday, November 22, 2006, the Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington (“Billington”), announced six new exemptions from the prohibition against circumvention of technological protection measures that control access to copyright works, as provided in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Six exemptions are the most granted during a single rulemaking session. The exemptions will go into effect on November 27, 2006 and continue through October 27, 2009.
This was the third time that the Copyright Office conducted anti-circumvention rulemaking, with previous rulemaking occurring in 2000 and 2003. The Copyright Office requested written comments from all interested parties (representatives of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives, scholars, etc.) to determine whether users of certain classes of works were adversely affected in their ability to make non-infringing uses of those works by the DMCA’s prohibitions against circumvention. Seventy-four comments were submitted, after which the Copyright Office held hearings in Palo Alto, California and Washington, D.C.
The first exemption allows film professors to break the CSS copyright protection technology found in most DVDs to create compilations for use in the classroom. Although Hollywood studios opposed this exemption, arguing that professors could use alternatives such as videotapes and non-copy-protected versions, Billington stated that these alternatives did not meet the pedagogical needs of the professors.
The second exemption deals with computer obsolescence, and allows copy controls to be circumvented for computer software and video games that require machines that are no longer available. This exemption was granted for the third time, and is limited to the “preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive.”
Computer programs that are protected by dongles – small computer attachments – can be circumvented if the dongles prevent access due to malfunction or damage and are obsolete.
In its fourth exemption, the Copyright Office authorized the circumvention of access controls for eBooks to enable blind users to use them with read-aloud software or screen readers.
Under the fifth exemption, cell phone users are authorized to break software locks on their phones to enable their use with competing carriers. The Copyright Office determined that “consumers aren’t able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks.” Billington stated that there is at least one ongoing lawsuit based on recycled cell phones, with the plaintiff’s claim being that the DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent copy-protection measures without a specific exemption from the Copyright Office. Under this new set of exemptions, it would appear that the claim would fail.
The sixth and final exemption allows researchers to test copy-protected CDs in an effort to find and correct security flaws and vulnerabilities. This exemption was based largely on Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s use of a copy-protection system that increased the vulnerability of consumers’ computers to hacking. Chilling Effects contributor the Samuelson Clinic requested [pdf] this exemption on behalf of Princeton computer scientists Edward Felten and Alex Halderman.
Fred von Lohmann, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, commented that he was encouraged by the fact that exemptions were recognized for archivists, cell phone recyclers and computer security experts. However, he also pointed out that the Copyright Office may not have done enough to benefit consumers when it rejected an exemption that would have allowed owners of DVDs to legally copy movies for use on portable players, such as Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod.
Click here for the full text of the “Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works.”
For more information on this story see:
Yahoo News Article
”U.S. Copyright Office issues new rights”
Wired Blogs
“U.S. Copyright Office Allows Hacking of Cellphone Lockout and Abandonware Copy Protection”
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