DMCA Title I
Title I of the DMCA implements two World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties:
- the WIPO Copyright Treaty
- WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
Technological Protection Measures
- DMCA amended the Copyright Act (1976) to extend U.S. copyright law to creative works made by citizens in other countries
- required as part of the WIPO treaties
- WIPO treaties required two major changes:
- members of the treaties must prevent people from bypassing technological measures used to protect copyrighted works
- Many digital products use access controls to protect certain types of content
- technology measures and tools that some businesses use to protect their content are referred to as digital rights management (DRM)
- large businesses in the entertainment industry use DRM to protect their digital works
- DMCA forbids people from accessing protected copyrighted content by bypassing these access controls
- DMCA also forbids the sale of devices that would allow other people to bypass technological controls to copy a copyrighted work
- does not prohibit people from actually bypassing technological controls on their own to copy a work
- because copying might be necessary to use parts of a work under the fair use doctrine
- does not prohibit people from actually bypassing technological controls on their own to copy a work
- members of the treaties must prevent people from bypassing technological measures used to protect copyrighted works
Exceptions to Anti-Circumvention Measures
- Nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institutions may bypass technology protection measures to make a good faith determination that they wish to obtain authorized access to the work
- A person who has lawfully obtained a computer program may bypass technology protection measures to identify and analyze elements of the program in order to make sure it is compatible with other programs
- A person may bypass technology protection measures and create tools to do so to research and identify weaknesses in encryption technologies
- A person may bypass technology protection measures to protect children from certain material on the internet
- A person may bypass technology protection measures when those measures are capable of collecting or sharing personally identifying information about a person’s online activities
- A person may bypass technology protection measures and create tools to do so for testing the security of a computer system or network
- owner of the system must specifically authorize the testing
Criminal Penalties
- criminalizes the act of bypassing technological measures
- person who willfully violates the technology protection measures for profit can be held criminally liable
- Penalties:
- prison time up to 10 years
- monetary fines up to $1,000,000
- law makes nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institutions entirely exempt from its criminal liability provisions