What is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Public Law No. 105-304, 112 Stat. 2861 (Oct. 28, 1998) (also referred to as the “DMCA”) was passed by Congress in October 1998 and was signed into law by President Clinton on October 28, 1998. This legislation substantially rewrites Title 17, the U.S. Copyright Act, by creating new copyright-related rights not limited to the prevention of traditional copyright infringement. The Act imposes civil and possible criminal liability for the circumvention of access control measures and for the distribution of technology to circumvent access or copy controls. While most of the focus has been on 17 U.S.C. 1201, which was introduced by the passage of the DMCA, this rewrite involved changing and adding a great deal of material in Title 17. Amended Title 17 sections include: 101, 104, 104A, 108, 112, 117, 411A, 507A, 801-803. Passages in 35 U.S.C., 5 U.S.C. and 28 U.S.C. were amended as well. New sections to Title 17 include Chapter 12, “Copyright Protection a
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or DMCA) limits the liability of “online service providers” (OSPs) for copyright infringement by their users. These limitations, or “Safe Harbor Provisions,” apply to: Storage of material on a system at a user’s request (e.g., pirated software, serial numbers or cracker utilities posted on message boards or in chat rooms). Referral to other online resources (e.g., linking to other sites that make infringing material available). Caching of online materials from other sites (e.g., temporary storage of other web pages on one’s own server). Acting as a conduit between users (e.g., automatic delivery of email between users). In order to be protected for storage and linking you must: Lack actual knowledge and immediately remove or block access to the material when becoming aware of the infringement. Not benefit financially from the activity. Comply with the notice and takedown provisions and set up an agent to deal with complaints in accordance with the
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is legislation enacted by the United States Congress in October 1998 that made major changes to the US Copyright Act. These changes were necessary in part to bring US copyright law into compliance with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances Phonograms Treaty. The DMCA also strengthened the legal protection of intellectual property rights in the wake of emerging new information communication technologies, i.e., the Internet. The DMCA has five titles, or sections, with Title II having the most immediate impact on the MSU community. Title II outlines certain legal duties with which Online Service Providers (OSPs) must comply in order to limit their legal liabilities in the event a user of their service violates copyright laws. An OSP is defined as “an entity offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications”. For purposes of the DMCA, MSU is r
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into United States copyright law on October 28, 1998. This act essentially combined and enacted two 1996 treaties from the World Intellectual Property Organization, both designed to enhance digital copyright protection measures. A large portion of the DMCA was targeted at protecting systems which control access to copyrighted material, generally referred to as Digital Rights Management (DRM). Any services, devices, or technologies that exist to circumvent DRM systems were made illegal, and further, the act of bypassing DRM systems itself was criminalized, even if the actual copyrighted material was not infringed. Other implemented measures of the DMCA included increasing penalties associated with copyright infringement on the internet and limiting the liability of online service providers in cases where their users have committed copyright infringement. For more information on intellectual property, please visit Patent, Trademark,
