Should researchers really be so worried about the much-reviled Digital Millennium Copyright Act?
If you believe the buzz, you’ll conclude that programmers, academics and engineers should be scared witless about being sued under the DMCA. In effect for nearly two years, the law sets protections for the codes that are wrapped around certain copyrighted content such as DVDs and electronic books. An attorney for the Computing Research Association, representing the computer science departments of some 200 universities, claims that “professors are afraid to study information systems or to publish their research.” One researcher in the Netherlands announced that, because of the DMCA, he would not reveal his analysis of Intel’s digital video system. Edward Felten, a computer scientist at Princeton University, and his colleagues postponed a presentation of their co-authored paper for four months after receiving DMCA threats. Don’t get me wrong. The DMCA is both an egregious law and a brazen power grab by Hollywood, the music industry and software companies. It is probably unconstitutional.
Related Questions
- Didn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) criminalize the study of these kinds of technologies in the United States?
- What type of items are we allowed to make digital copies of under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?
- What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and How Does it Pertain to Legal Forms?
