The Big, Bad Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
The Cause of Many Problems or a Necessary Evil of Living
in the Digital Age? The DMCA outlaws the circumvention of
encrypted digital works. This federal law was created in 1997
when motion picture studios, record producers, book publishers
and others asked Congress to create a law that would stop
pirates from circumventing technical protection measures used
to safeguard copyrighted works. Many people feel the DMCA
is harming the fair-use doctrine which has helped enable our
country's researchers and scientists make advances in scientific
inquiry and education for over 150 years.
The DMCA also places limitations on infringement liability
for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and sets guidelines
for educational institutions to follow. Some of these rules
include "notice and takedown" actions for any inappropriate
content that is located on campus web servers. It looks like
higher education institutions meet the definition the DMCA
gives for "Online Service Providers" (OSPs). This
enables universities to qualify for the benefits the DMCA
grants to OSPs regarding limitations on liability. In order
to qualify, higher education institutions must adopt a policy
regarding the termination of accounts of repeat copyright
offenders, as well as accommodate copyright owners and their
rights to protect their works.
The DMCA limits instituional liability in four separate
areas. These areas include "transitory digital communications,
system caching, information location tools, and information
on systems or networks." The most interesting prong might
be the "transitory digital network communication"
because it provides protection for the OSP when it "merely
acts as a data conduit, transmitting digital information from
one point on a network to another at someone else's request."
Movie studios, record labels, and other artists insist that
the statute is necessary to keep people from indiscriminate
and unauthorized copying of films and music over the Internet,
where digital material is so easily digested and transferred.
So far, according to reports, piracy is increasing at an alarming
rate.
Under the DMCA problems also arise from using digital recordings
online. Music on websites creates obligations to ASCAP/BMI
and other sound recording companies and publishers. Uses in
educational settings with multimedia materials, in-class performances,
transmission, and display, and library photocopying all have
implications under the DMCA. Section 1201 (a)(1), prohibits
unauthorized access to a work by circumventing an effective
technological protection measure used by a copyright owner
to control access to a copyrighted work. This leads to the
feeling that all traditional types of fair use activities
may now be a risk. Any action without permission may be at
risk.
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