Copyright Office Names New Exemptions to Anti-Circumvention Law

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 27, 2006 - 1:50pm.

Washington - The Library of Congress has approved six new exemptions to a section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that prohibits the circumvention of copyright locks on digital devices.

One exemption will allow mobile phone owners to work around software that prevents their phones from being used with competing carriers.

Other exemptions will allow film professors to break DVD security locks in order to create educational compilations for students, and let blind people use software that circumvents copy-protection on e-books.

Another exemption will let computer researchers break security to test CD copy-protection technologies, in the wake of Sony BMG's use of security software on millions of CDs that could have also potentially opened computers to malicious attacks.

The new exemptions approved by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington are set to expire in three years.

Related Links:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/digital_copyright (AP)
http://www.copyright.gov/1201