New DMCA Exemptions Released by the U.S. Copyright Office
From Freedom to Tinker:
Last Wednesday afternoon the U.S. Copyright Office released its list of DMCA exemptions for the next three years. The timing is interesting: releasing news in the afternoon of the day before Thanksgiving is a near-optimal strategy if you want that news to escape notice and coverage in the U.S.
The purpose of these exemptions are to prevent harm to the public from overbreadth of the DMCA’s prohibition on circumventing technologies that control access to copyrighted works. Exemptions last three years.
The good news that that six exemptions were granted, the most ever:
- Professors can make compilations of film and video material for research or teaching.
- Archivists can preserve copies of old programs and computer games.
- Anyone can work around broken hardware “dongles” that prevent access to software programs.
- Blind people can use software to have e-books read aloud.
- Wireless phone customers can switch their phones to a different wireless provider.
- Anyone can study, test, or remove malware distributed on CDs.
(These are summaries; the exact scope of each exemption is detailed in the original document.)
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