[FYI] EFF: Unintended Consequences: Four Years under the DMCA

[Jan Meyer <jan@synflood.in-berlin.de>]

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http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/20030102_dmca_unintended_consequences.html

Unintended Consequences:
Four Years under the DMCA

1.
Executive Summary

Since they were enacted in 1998, the “anti-circumvention” provisions of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in section 1201 of the
Copyright Act, have not been used as Congress envisioned. Congress meant to
stop copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to
copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose.[1]

In practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide
array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy. As a
result, the DMCA has developed into a serious threat to three important public
policy priorities:

Section 1201 Chills Free Expression and Scientific Research.

Experience with section 1201 demonstrates that it is being used to stifle free
speech and scientific research. The lawsuit against 2600 magazine, threats
against Princeton Professor Edward Felten’s team of researchers, and
prosecution of Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov have chilled the legitimate
activities of journalists, publishers, scientists, students, programmers, and
members of the public.

Section 1201 Jeopardizes Fair Use.

By banning all acts of circumvention, and all technologies and tools that can
be used for circumvention, section 1201 grants to copyright owners the power
to unilaterally eliminate the public’s fair use rights. Already, the music
industry has begun deploying “copy-protected CDs” that promise to curtail
consumers’ ability to make legitimate, personal copies of music they have
purchased.

Section 1201 Impedes Competition and Innovation.

Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have chosen to use the
DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors. For example, Sony has invoked
section 1201 to protect their monopoly on Playstation video game consoles, as
well as their “regionalization” system limiting users in one country from
playing games legitimately purchased in another.


This document collects a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention
provisions of the DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against
consumers, scientists, and legitimate competitors. It will be updated from
time to time as additional cases come to light. The latest version can always
be obtained at www.eff.org.


[...]


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