DMCA

I'd like to take a little look at the DMCA. Firstly, what is the DMCA. The DMCA is The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law which criminalizes production and dissemination of technology whose primary purpose is to circumvent measures taken to protect copyright, not merely infringement of copyright itself, and heightens the penalties for copyright infringement on the Internet (from wikipedia) There have been some changes to the DMCA over the years. Every three years the Copyright Office makes a list of exemptions. This year six (6) exemptions were made. So far twelve (12) exemptions have been made. Two in 2000

• Compilations consisting of lists of websites blocked by filtering software applications, and

• Literary works, including computer programs and databases, protected by access control mechanisms that fail to permit access because of malfunction, damage, or obsoleteness.

Four in 2003 -

• Compilations consisting of lists of Internet locations blocked by commercially marketed filtering software applications that are intended to prevent access to domains, websites or portions of websites, but not including lists of Internet locations blocked by software applications that operate exclusively to protect against damage to a computer or computer network or lists of Internet locations blocked by software applications that operate exclusively to prevent receipt of email.
  
• Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.
• Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.
• Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling of the ebook's read-aloud function and that prevent the enabling of screen readers to render the text into a specialized format.

And six this year -

• Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.

• Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

• Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

• Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

• Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.

• Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

Consumers are still not legally allowed to make backups of dvd's which utilize encryption methods. So it seems that fair use does not apply here. DVD makers have now started using encryption methods to lock the disk. Essentially it scrambles the material. DVD players put that information back together. You now have to find a key to unlock the dvd in order to make a copy of it. Well that is illegal in the United States. I can't speak for the rest of the country...but you know what, that rule stinks. I have small children, so naturally I want to backup my dvds. Things always happen to them. Especially when my 4 yr old decides that he wants to be independent and put the movie into the player himself. I just don't seem to make enough money to replace dvds everytime one gets scratched.

How can we change this? One thing everyone can do is let their Congressman know about it. Send letters, emails....in bulk ;) We need to get the message across to the Law Makers that this is not acceptable. Since when is it the policy of this country to punish the populace for the few who break the law. That's not my idea of justice.

Now it seems that when you legally buy a DVD from, say Wal-Mart, you can download a copy of the movie for more money. I think it's like $1.99 or something. The version that you download you can then put on a portable media player. Isn't that nice of the movie studios! I pay for the movie twice that way.