U.S. Copyright Office
Library of Congress
Rulemaking on Anticircumvention

Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works


Section 1201(a)(1) title 17, United States Code

Federal Register Notice Seeking Written Comments

(October 15, 2002)

Comments

Petition by Static Control Components, Inc.

Federal Register Notice Seeking Comments on Petition (February 10, 2003)

Reply Comments

Replies to Static Control Petition

Hearings Schedule

Hearing Transcripts

Post-hearing Responses

Letter from Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, coveying the views of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) (August 11, 2003)

Statement of the Librarian of Congress on the Anticircumvention Rulemaking: TEXT

Determination of the Librarian of Congress and Text of the Regulation: PDF, TEXT

The Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights: PDF

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.


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.