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Paul Sweeting

Paul Sweeting is the editor of ContentAgenda.com and a columnist for Video Business. He has covered the home entertainment industries since 1985 for Billboard, Variety, Publishers Weekly and other leading business publications. He is based in Washington, DC.


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Paul Sweeting

Paul Sweeting, Media Wonk
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It's DMCA exemption time! - October 6, 2008

Get those anti-circumvention exemptions ready kids! It's time for the Copyright Office's triennial review of Section 1201(a)(1) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, in which the Register of Copyrights makes recommendations to the Librarian of Congress about granting temporary exemptions to the ban on circumventing encryption on certain classes of works. The federal register notice is here. Congress added the triennial review to the DMCA as a fail-safe mechanism, in case it turned out that the blanket ban on circumvention was "unduly burdening" fair use of certain types of work. The exemptions are only good for three years, however, and must be reapplied for with each review.

The last rulemaking, in 2006, resulted in six exemptions:
1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

5. 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.

6. Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased 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.
Written comments recommending exemptions are due in the Copyright Office December 2, 2008. A notice of proposed rulemaking will be issued later in December based on those recommendations, and final comments are due February 2, 2009.
[Digital Copyright]  [Regulation & Legislation]   LEAVE A COMMENT
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anonymous
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

What about computer programs in the form of firmware for hardware devices no longer supported; manufactured.




Anonyomon
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Does this mean I'm exempt from the final exam as well?




jackakerouac
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Great that they only accept these exemptions once every 3 years. I mean come on!




Laws4sale
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

How about an exemption for personal copies/backup of original media? If you have Disney movies and games for kids, your doing it anyway!




JPTech
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Computer programs, video games, and multimedia content in digital format which, in order to operate in the desired manner, require activation to Internet servers which no longer function or are decommissioned. An Internet activation server shall be considered not functioning after one month of downtime.




musiclover
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Any "out of print" music/book/film should be exempt.




Jim
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

I'd nominate the former #6, except not just sound recordings and not just CDROMs.




anonymous
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

anyone know if taking plain screenshots of dvd's are allowed? eg, for review purposes or for example helping a client get the perfect screenshot for their advertising campaign where the dvd is their own? computer OS's by default block this, but some programs like snapz pro allow you to do this. obviously capturing video from a dvd is illegal, but what about a plain old 1 frame screenshot?




Rosenrot
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Exempt the ability to have phones unlocked and ready to go straight from the manufacture and carrier.




Maker
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Yeah, we want to get phones unlocked straight from the carries to have more freedom with the devices we buy.




Fagert
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Make it possible to have phones unlocked and ready to go straight from the carriers. If you do this people will more likely buy phones and keep them for longer and still buy new ones because of new features.




Howart
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Make the phone componies give us unlocked phones straight out and without having to pay more.




Josh
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

we need to have unlocked phones from the phone carriers and without paying the ridiculuos price that the sometimes sell them at. If their cheaper more people will buy them and build more customer loyalty as they aren't tied down to that certain company anymore and can go anywhere they want.




Fred
October 8, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Allow at least 1 digital copy for each piece of playback equipment owned by the same person who owns the media copy. For example, there are digital media DRM types that use online registration or other degenerative restrictions to limit copies to as few as 3 pieces of playback equipment. Such limitation no longer constitutes traditional media copy ownership -- it becomes device-limited or even time-limited (measured in limited device lifetime) rental. Therefore, any system that does not allow at least one copy per piece of equipment owned should have to be re-designated as a rental, not a traditional purchase. Relevant fraud, false advertisement, and consumer protections should be enforced when such a rental system claims to be a traditional purchase type.




samwyse
October 10, 2008
Response to:
It's DMCA exemption time!

Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require access to a central server as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or reproduction of published digital works by the original accessing entity. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine, system or service necessary to authorize the perceptible of a work stored in that format if a central server is no longer provided to authorize such perceptible.