The WIDE World Web
DMCA Testimony
May 12, 2009 - by Martine Rife, from the blog WIDE World Web
Testifying in DC before the US Copyright Office regarding DMCA 1201 exemptions
Last week on May 6 and 7, 2009, I traveled to DC in order to testify at the tri-annual rulemaking hearings, Library of Congress, James Madison Building, before the US Copyright office in support of certain exemptions to the anti-circumvention provisions of section 1201(a)(1), USC Title 17 (commonly called the DMCA or Digital Millennium Copyright Act).
During the next few weeks, with the help of the WIDE Research Center, particularly Mike McLeod, I’m going to create an annotated archive and resource regarding these hearings, because the issues raised are important to many of us.
For now, I provide you an interesting example of the kinds of issues discussed during the hearings. The below link goes to a 16 minute audio file extracted from the Mp3 files created by the copyright office, covering the question and answer period in the morning of May 7, 2009. In this audio file, Steve Metalitz, attorney representing the MPAA: Motion Picture Association of America, RIAA: Recording Industry Association of American, AAP: Association of American Publishers, ASMP:American Society of Media Photographers, AVA: Alliance of Visual Artists, BSA: Business Software Alliance, DGA: Directors Guild of American, Inc., ESA: Entertainment Software Association, PACA: Picture Archive Council of America and Bruce Trumbull, attorney representing the DVD Copy Control Association, Inc., answered questions from David Carson (General Counsel) and Rob Kasunic (Principal Legal Advisor) of the US Copyright Office.
https://www.msu.edu/~courantm/DMCA/Q&Avidders_metalitz_turnbull_copy-access.mp3
A number of interesting issues are raised in this brief question and answer extract:
1.How can we differentiate between circumvention for purposes of copying versus circumventing to gain access, considering that only the latter is prohibited by 1201(a)(1)?
2.As technology develops, how should we think about screen capturing software in the context of “anti-circumvention”?
3.What is the role of the statutorily conferred rulemaking abilities of the US Copyright Office with respect to exemptions from 1201(a)(1)?
4.How should we think about trafficking of the tools of circumvention, clearly prohibited by 1201(a)(2), versus the use of such tools (not prohibited)?
The main issue, for my purposes, at this year’s hearings was whether or not the exemption achieved by University of Pennsylvania film studies Prof. Pete DeCherney (he’s locatable on twitter) three years ago will be continued and hopefully expanded for all students and teachers. The exemption he admirably gained for the academic community in 2006 is set to expire in October 2009. This is the exemption:
“Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.”
The brunt of my testimony took place on May 6, and I’ve extracted an excerpt featuring this testimony from the copyright office’s files.
https://www.msu.edu/~courantm/DMCA/may7/martine_courant_rife.mp3
I argued for the exemption to be expanded as follows:
“Motion picture and audiovisual works released on DVD, housed in a US library collection where the student attends or where the teacher is employed, or legally obtained and owned by the teacher/student,where circumvention is undertaken solely for the purpose of extracting clips for inclusion in videos or multimedia texts that do not infringe copyright and that are composed either as part of student coursework or as part of course curriculum. This exemption shall apply even for works that are gifted from students/teachers to community groups/non-profits as part of service learning or community outreach.”
My testimony was also supported by my request to testify, a handout, and an audiovisual demonstration.
Rife’s Summary of Audiovisual Demonstration
In the coming weeks, I will update you on the progress of the annotated archive that I will create with the assistance of WIDE. Thanks for your interest.
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