Exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") criminalized the production and dissemination of technology intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works, as well as the act of circumventing such access controls. It increased the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet and created a safe harbor from copyright infringement liability for online service providers that follow prescribed guidelines to block access to allegedly infringing material if notified of infringement by the copyright owner.
Under the DMCA, the Librarian of Congress is authorized periodically to issue exemptions from the anti-circumvention provisions when it appears that the technology being used for access-control has a negative effect on the ability of individuals to make appropriate use of copyrighted works. The exemptions include the following:
• DVD movies - Anti-circumvention technology protecting DVD movies that are lawfully made and acquired may be circumvented in order to incorporate portions of the movies into new works for purposes of criticism or comment. This is available only for educational uses by college and university professors and film and media studies students, documentary filmmaking, and non-commercial videos.
• Cell phones - Anti-circumvention technology protecting against the installation of new software applications on cell phones may be circumvented to enable interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, on the cell phones ("jailbreaking").
• Video games - Anti-circumvention technology protecting video games accessible on PCs may be circumvented for the purpose of good faith testing or correcting security flaws, provided the information derived from the testing is used to promote security and not to facilitate copyright infringement.