Guide to DMCA "Exemption" Process -- Three Weeks Left
Monty Solomon
From: Lee Tien
EFF is pleased to present a guide to the DMCA "exemption" process.
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/finkelstein_on_dmca.html
Under this process, the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress
must make a triennial inquiry regarding adverse effects of the DMCA's
prohibition on circumvention on "certain classes of works."
If adverse effects are shown, the office can "exempt certain classes
of works from the prohibition against circumvention of technological
measures that control access to copyrighted works." The exemptions
only last three years.
The author, Seth Finkelstein, is one of the very few people who
succeeded in arguing for an exemption (for the act of circumventing
access/copy controls on censorware blacklists) in the last round
(2000). [The Copyright Office received many comments and rejected
the overwhelming majority of them; I think in the end only two or three
exemptions were created.]
The upcoming round is the next one, for 2003. "Written comments are
due by December 18, 2002."
This is about the only part of the DMCA that can mitigate its fell
sway, so if you have any interest in the topic at all, it's well
worth reading.
Lee Tien
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 436-9333 x 102 (tel)
(415) 436-9993 (fax)