EFF: Unintended Consequences – Twelve Years Under the DMCA

“Unintended Consequences: Twelve Years Under the DMCA

“EFF Documents Continuing Legacy of Harm to Fair Use, Free
Speech

“San Francisco – Twelve years after the passage of the
controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the law
continues to stymie fair use, free speech, scientific research, and
legitimate competition. A new report from the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF) collects reported examples of abuses of the DMCA
and the ongoing harm the law continues to inflict on consumers,
scientists, and small businesses.

“The U.S. Copyright Office is currently mulling proposed
exemptions to the DMCA’s ban on “circumventing” digital rights
management (DRM) and “other technical protection measures” used to
restrict access to copyrighted works. The Copyright Office is
empowered to grant exemptions to the law every three years to
mitigate the harms that DRM otherwise would impose on legitimate,
non-infringing uses of copyrighted materials.

“The triennial Copyright Office rulemaking, however, has not
been enough to prevent abuses of the DMCA. EFF’s report details the
numerous harms stemming from the DMCA’s ban on circumventing DRM,
including Apple’s attempts to lock down the iPhone and force users
into its App Store. Also new in this year’s report is the account
of hobbyists threatened by Texas Instruments for blogging about
potential modifications to the company’s programmable graphing
calculators as well as the story behind the legal attacks on Real
DVD and other products that create innovative new ways for
consumers to enjoy DVD content they have legitimately
purchased.”

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