Here is a good starting place:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/
http://www.cdt.org/copyright/ (not DMCA specific, but still very good).
As you know, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") was signed
into law on October 28, 1998. The legislation implements two 1996
World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") treaties: the WIPO
Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The
DMCA also addresses a number of other significant copyright-related
issues.
The DMCA is divided into five titles:
· Title I, the ?WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms
Treaties Implementation Act of 1998,? implements the WIPO treaties.
It is codified in a new Chapter 12 to Title 17 of the U. S. Code. It
creates two new prohibitions?-one on circumvention of technological
measures used by copyright owners to protect their works and one on
tampering with copyright management information. It also adds civil
remedies and criminal penalties for violating the prohibitions.
· Title II, the ?Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation
Act,? creates limitations on the liability of online service providers
for copyright infringement when engaging in certain types of
activities. It is codified in 17 U.S.C. section 512 as a new section.
· Title III, the ?Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act,?
creates an exemption in 17 U.S.C. section 117 for making a copy of a
computer program by activating a computer for purposes of maintenance
or repair.
· Title IV contains six miscellaneous provisions, relating to the
functions of the Copyright Office, distance education, the exceptions
in the Copyright Act for libraries and for making ephemeral
recordings, ?webcasting? of sound recordings on the Internet, and the
applicability of collective bargaining agreement obligations in the
case of transfers of rights in motion pictures.
· Title V, the ?Vessel Hull Design Protection Act,? creates a new form
of protection for the design of vessel hulls. This provision adds a
new chapter 13 to Title 17 of the U.S. Code.
Of these five titles, the one that most directly impacts your stated
technologies is Title I, dealing, in relevant part, with
anticircumvention. For example, if it is found that a P2P network
operates to circumvent copy-protection technology, that would be a
violation of Title I. Also note that to the extent any individual
user of a P2P network defeats copy protection in order to, e.g., rip a
CD, so that he can share it, that act in and of itself violates Title
I. But I think that the very recent decision finding that Grokster,
et al., did not violate US copyright law per se has a potentially
greater impact on your stated technologies than DMCA. See
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/circs/9th/0355894p.pdf. Note that
DMCA did not even play a role in that decision.
Title II, which in relevant part creates certain safe harbors against
allegations of copyright infringement for certain types of service
providers, doesn?t really impact digital delivery technologies either,
except to the extent a service provider is accused of participating in
a P2P network, and even then the statute provides exculpation.
Title IV, dealing with webcasting, is concerned principally with
royalties webcasters must pay, and so only tangentially addresses your
question. See http://www.digitalspeech.org/carp.shtml.
So, having said all that, is there some specific reason you feel DMCA
does impact these technologies? There are other laws and cases that
more immediately and directly affect P2P, most notably the Grokster
case. |
