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In one of the most important and controversial aspects of the DMCA, any technology which is designed to circumvent copy-protection schemes, no matter how simple, is illegal. This has strong implications for the fair use aspect of US copyright law, which provides the consumer with the right to make copies of copyrighted material for personal use. In other words, if a manufacturer installs copy-protection in a product, the right to copy is guaranteed, but the ability to copy is prohibited.
Will the situation change anytime soon? While the DMCA is unlikely to be scrapped in the near term, small changes have already been made as part of the law's three-year review, but have all touched on fairly minor issues to date. More promising is the Digital Media Consumers' Rights Act reintroduced in 2005 and currently stuck in the Judiciary committee. The bill would gut the DMCA's current anti-circumvention provision by including the following line: "and it is not a violation of this section to circumvent a technological measure in order to obtain access to the work for purposes of making non-infringing use of the work." Though it may never come to a vote, the bill shows that at least some members of Congress are also aware of the DMCA's problems. Whether they will be able to do anything about them remains to be seen. More...
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