Copyright Office Issues DMCA Exceptions

The U.S. Copyright Office granted narrow, three-year exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that permit circumvention of access-control technologies on electronic media if specific conditions are met. Under one exemption, professors of film and media studies can circumvent the access-control technology of DVDs in their libraries to use film clips in class. Another exemption permits circumvention of access-control technology to test, explore, and fix security flaws in copy-protection software included on audio compact discs.

Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 November 2006 (sub. req’d)