Exemptions To Anti-Piracy Statute Proposed
The U.S. Copyright Office has received 19 proposals for classes of works to be subject to anti-circumvention exemptions within the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and is seeking public comment on them, officials said this week. The purpose of the proceeding is to determine whether there are particular technologies or applications as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make non-infringing uses due to anti-piracy (digital rights management) mechanisms.
Some of the proposed classes include:
▪ Subscription based services that offer DRM-protected streaming video where the provider has only made available players for a limited number of platforms, effectively creating an access control that requires a specific operating system version and/or set of hardware to view purchased material.
▪ Motion pictures protected by anti-access measures, such that access to the motion picture content requires use of a certain platform.
▪ Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the handset.
▪ Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network, regardless of commercial motive.
▪ Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.
▪ Audiovisual works delivered by digital television transmission intended for free, over-the-air reception by anyone, which are marked with a ''broadcast flag'' indicator that prevents, restricts, or inhibits the ability of recipients to access the work at a time of the recipient's choosing and subsequent to the time of transmission, or using a machine owned by the recipient but which is not the same machine that originally acquired the transmission.
▪ Lawfully purchased sound recordings, audiovisual works, and software programs distributed commercially in digital format by online music and media stores and protected by technological measures that depend on the continued availability of authenticating servers, when such authenticating servers cease functioning because the store fails or for other reasons.
The full list of comments proposing classes of works for exemption is available here and the notice of proposed rulemaking is available here. Comments in support or in opposition to the classes proposed may be submitted until Feb. 2, 2009. A comment form will be added to the Copyright Office's Web site on Jan. 2 for posting responses.
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