Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies: Responses to Questions
Following the hearings in May and June, the Copyright Office sent follow-up questions to the witnesses who had testfied at the hearings. The deadlines for some of the responses have not yet passed. The responses that have been received are available on this page.
| Exemption | Proposed Classes of Works | Question | Organization/Response |
| 3 | Computer programs that enable lawfully acquired video game consoles to execute lawfully acquired software applications, where circumvention is undertaken for the purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the gaming console. | June 20, 2012 letter | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) |
| 4 | Computer programs that enable the installation and execution of lawfully obtained software on a personal computing device, where circumvention is performed by or at the request of the device's owner. | June 21, 2012 letter | Business Software Alliance (4) |
| 5 | Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets ("smartphones") and tablets to execute lawfully obtained software applications, where circumvention is undertaken for the purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications with computer programs on the handset or tablet. | June 21, 2012 letter | Business Software Alliance (5) Business Software Alliance (4-5) Electronic Frontier Foundation Electronic Frontier Foundation addendum Joint Creators and Copyright Owners Joint Creators and Copyright Owners (Supplement) Additional Post-Hearing Correspondence |
| 6A | Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, including data used by those programs, that enable mobile devices to connect to a wireless communications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the device to remove a restriction that limits the device's operability to a limited number of networks, or circumvention is initiated to connect to a wireless communications network. | June 21, 2012 letter | |
| 6B | Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, including data used by those programs, that enable wireless devices to connect to a wireless communications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program principally in order to connect to a wireless communications network and access to such communications network is authorized by the operator of such communications network. | See 6A above | |
| 6C | Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, including data used by those programs, that enable wireless devices to connect to a wireless communications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless communications network and access to such communications network is authorized by the operator of such communications network. | See 6A above | |
| 7A | Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use in the following instances: (i) Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students; (ii) Documentary filmmaking; (iii) Noncommercial videos |
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) DVD CCA (second response) Joint Creators and Copyright Owners Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) Additional Post-Hearing Correspondence Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) andOrganization For Transformative Works |
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| 7B | Audiovisual works on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System, where circumvention is undertaken for the purpose of extracting clips for inclusion in primarily noncommercial videos that do not infringe copyright, and the person engaging in the circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use. | See 7A above | |
| 7C | Audiovisual works that are lawfully made and acquired via online distribution services, where circumvention is undertaken for the purpose of extracting clips for inclusion in primarily noncommercial videos that do not infringe copyright, and the person engaging in the circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of the use, and the works in question are not readily available on DVD. | See 7A above | |
| 7D | Motion pictures that are lawfully made and acquired from DVDs protected by the Content Scrambling System and Blu-Ray discs protected by Advanced Access Content System, or, if the motion picture is not reasonably available on DVD or Blu-Ray or not reasonably available in sufficient audiovisual quality on DVD or Blu-Ray, then from digitally transmitted video protected by an authentication protocol or by encryption, when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to incorporate short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of fair use, and when the person engaging in circumvention reasonably believes that circumvention is necessary to obtain the motion picture in the following instances: (1) documentary filmmaking; OR (2) fictional filmmaking. | See 7A above | |
| 7E | Motion pictures that are lawfully made and acquired from DVDs protected by the Content Scrambling System or, if the motion picture is not reasonably available on or not reasonably available in sufficient audiovisual quality on DVD, then from digitally transmitted video protected by an authentication protocol or by encryption, when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to incorporate short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of fair use, and when the person engaging in circumvention reasonably believes that circumvention is necessary to obtain the motion picture for multimedia e-book authorship. | See 7A above | |
| 7F | Motion pictures on DVDs that are lawfully made and acquired and that are protected by the Content Scrambling System when circumvention is accomplished solely in order to accomplish the incorporation of short portions of motion pictures into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment, and where the person engaging in circumvention believes and has reasonable grounds for believing that circumvention is necessary to fulfill the purpose of educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students. | See 7A above | |
| 7G | Audiovisual works (optical discs, streaming media, and downloads) that are lawfully made and acquired when circumvention is accomplished by college and university students or faculty (including teaching and research assistants) solely in order to incorporate short portions of video into new works for the purpose of criticism or comment. | See 7A above | |
| 8 | Lawfully accessed audiovisual works used for educational purposes by kindergarten through twelfth grade educators. |
DVD CCA (second response) Joint Creators and Copyright Owners Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) Additional Post-Hearing Correspondence |
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| 9A | Motion pictures and other audiovisual works delivered via Internet protocol (IP) protected by technological measures that control access to such works when circumvention is accomplished to facilitate the creation, improvement, or rendering of visual representations or descriptions of audible portions of such works for the purpose of improving the ability of individuals who may lawfully access such works to perceive such works. |
Institute for Public Representation
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| 9B | Motion pictures and other audiovisual works delivered via Internet protocol (IP) protected by technological measures that control access to such works when circumvention is accomplished to facilitate the creation, improvement, or rendering of audible representations or descriptions of visual portions of such works for the purpose of improving the ability of individuals who may lawfully access such works to perceive such works. | See 9A above | |
| 9C | Motion pictures and other audiovisual works on fixed disc-based media protected by technological measures that control access to such works when circumvention is accomplished to facilitate the creation, improvement, or rendering of visual representations or descriptions of audible portions of such works for the purpose of improving the ability of individuals who may lawfully access such works to perceive such works. | See 9A above | |
| 9D | Motion pictures and other audiovisual works on fixed disc-based media protected by technological measures that control access to such works when circumvention is accomplished to facilitate the creation, improvement, or rendering of audible representations or descriptions of visual portions of such works for the purpose of improving the ability of individuals who may lawfully access such works to perceive such works. | See 9A above |