New exemptions to anti circumvention were announced on July 26 by the US Copyright Office. Much anticipated and worth reading – they are astonishingly reasonable and helpful for educational, scholarly, and university needs. They include a DVD exemption that includes fair use-type uses explicitly, an exemption for e-book accessibility, an exemption for obsolete security technology, and circumvention for wireless telephones to allow for interoperability. These are stunningly reasonable.
Also see this nice piece in the Daily Pennsylvanian, ‘Copyright Law Exempts Professors,’ highlighting the importance of participating in the Federal Register process – giving real examples of problems you encounter with copyright can actually have an impact. Contact us at the Library’s Copyright Office with questions or difficulties you may have with copyright.
Another interesting development: there may be a split in the circuits on the question of whether circumventing for technology protection measures (TPM) is a DMCA violation. I have not read the case yet but it’s reported in Boing Boing – seen there as a break with precedents. “Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the (Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s) anti-circumvention provision” per Judge Garza of the 5th Circuit. “The DMCA prohibits only forms of access that would violate or impinge on the protections that the Copyright Act otherwise affords copyright owners.”