How does the DMCA affect fair-use?
The DMCA makes the circumvention of copy protection schemes illegal, even if the person avoiding the protection has paid for the work in question or has a fair use right to access it. This new policy sets up a major roadblock in the area of fair use; suddenly researchers in the academic world and home users alike have new legal barriers to their use of copyrighted materials. Under the DMCA it would be unlawful for a student to get around the Content Scrambling System (CSS) employed by most DVDs to take a clip from a DVD movie to use for a school project; a journalist would be committing a crime by defeating a digital watermark to excerpt music clips for critique; Individuals are also in violation of the DMCA for defeating copy-prevention measures in order to make backups, to time-shift and space-shift. The DMCA limits these and other kinds of activities considered legal fair use under U.S. copyright law.
