Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Amendment to the Federal Copyright Law, Title 17

In 1998, an amendment was made to Title 17, which made major changes in U.S. copyright law to address the digitally networked environment. It is called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and it represents a fundamental change in copyright law as applied to the Internet and digital works. Texas Tech strictly adheres to this law.

The DMCA was designed to implement the treaties signed in December 1996 at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Geneva conference, but it also contains additional provisions addressing related matters. To address the concerns of fair use, Congress included specific language that may ultimately provide certain exemptions for fair use (particularly for nonprofit archives, libraries, and educational institutions).

Basics of the act include the following points:

• Makes it a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into most commercial software.
• Outlaws the manufacture, sale, or distribution of code-cracking devices used to copy software illegally.
• Does permit the cracking of copyright protection devices, but only in order to conduct encryption research, assess product interoperability, and test computer security systems.
• Provides exemptions from anti-circumvention provisions for nonprofit libraries, archives, and educational institutions under certain circumstances.
• In general, limits Internet service providers from copyright infringement liability for simply transmitting information over the Internet. Service providers, however, are expected to remove material from users¹ Web sites that appear to constitute copyright infringement.
• Limits liability of nonprofit institutions of higher education (when they serve as on-line service providers and under certain circumstances) for copyright infringement by faculty members or graduate students.
• Requires that "webcasters" pay licensing fees to record companies.
• Requires that the Register of Copyrights, after consultation with relevant parties, submit to Congress recommendations regarding how to promote distance education through digital technologies while "maintaining an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the needs of users."
• States explicitly that "[n]othing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use...."

Summary of DMCA Text (PDF; you'll need Acrobat Reader)