On October 28, 2003, the Librarian of Congress,
on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, announced
the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition
against circumvention of technological measures that control access
to copyrighted works. The four classes of works exempted are:
(1)
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.
(2) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent
access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
Definitions.
(1) “Internet locations” are defined to include
domains, uniform resource locators (URLs), numeric IP addresses
or any combination thereof.
(2) “Obsolete” shall mean “no longer manufactured
or reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.”
(3) “Specialized format,” “digital text”
and “authorized entities” shall have the same
meaning as in 17 U.S.C. §121.
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These exemptions will remain in effect
through October 27, 2006.
Background
The Copyright Office is conducting the rulemaking proceeding
mandated by the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, which provides that the Librarian of Congress
may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against
circumvention of technological measures that control access to
copyrighted works.
The purpose of this proceeding is to determine whether there
are particular classes of works as to which users are, or are
likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing
uses due to the prohibition on circumvention of access controls.
This page contains links to published documents in this proceeding.
The Notice of Inquiry
in this second anticircumvention rulemaking requested written
comments from all interested parties, including representatives
of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives,
scholars, researchers and members of the public, in order to elicit
evidence on whether noninfringing uses of certain classes of works
are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by this prohibition
on the circumvention of measures that control access to copyrighted
works. The initial round of comments (due December 18, 2002) was
restricted to comments proposing exemptions for specific classes
of works. Reply comments (due February 19) were submitted in opposition
to or in further support of exemptions proposed in the initial
comments.
Hearings
The Copyright Office held hearings in this rulemaking in Washington,
D.C., on April 11, May 1, May 2, and May 9, 2003, and in Los Angeles,
California, on May 14 and 15. (Read more information on Washington,
D.C., hearings and on the Los
Angeles hearings.)
The hearings that were scheduled to take place on April 15 and
30 were cancelled. Instead there was an afternoon hearing on May
1, a full day of hearings on May 2, and a hearing on Friday, May
9. (For more information, see the Federal
Register Notice.)
See the 1201 Hearing Page
for additional information about the agenda and for full transcripts.
Prior (2000) Anticircumvention Rulemaking
The entire record of the previous
anticircumvention rulemaking is available.
For additional background on the anticircumvention provisions
generally and the previous anticircumvention rulemaking proceeding,
see 64 FR 66139 (1999).
For the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights and the
determination of the Librarian of Congress in the previous anticircumvention
rulemaking, see 65 FR 64555,
October 27, 2000.
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