The US Copyright Office has launched a public comment process on
a controversial clause of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) which bars users from circumventing copy-protection
technology in digital works such as music, movies and software.
According to the US Copyright Office, the aim of the
consultation is not to amend the DCMA, but to “examine adverse
effects in the current marketplace” to determine whether certain
exemptions to the circumvention prohibition should be
introduced.
It is pointed out in the consultation paper that the scope of
any exemptions will be very limited, and would cover only two
activities: decrypting filtering programs to identify the lists of
web sites which they block; and the circumvention of copy control
on software or other literary works where this copy control is
obsolete or interferes with function.
Public comments should be submitted by 18th December.
