Happenings on the DMCA front

It has been a busy week for those who watch the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and its effects. Here's a quick summary of what has been happening.

Every three years, the Librarian of Congress must consider applications for exemptions to the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. The decisions for this cycle have just been posted; they may be downloaded in PDF format. Four applications were granted this time:

1. Compilations consisting of lists of Internet locations blocked by commercially marketed filtering software applications... Interestingly, the exemption explicitly does not extend to anti-spam blacklists.

2. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.

3. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access.

4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work ... contain access controls that prevent the enabling of the ebook's read-aloud function and that prevent the enabling of screen readers to render the text into a specialized format.

Many other proposals were turned down. As Ed Felten notes, "My own exemption request, asking for exemptions for information security researchers, was denied as expected." Blanket exemptions for (otherwise) non-infringing uses, or for fair use were turned down as not properly specifying which works should be exempted. A requested exemption for making backup copies of DVDs went down because it did not show, to the Librarian's satisfaction, that DVDs are fragile or that making a backup copy is a noninfringing use.

Static Control Components has been engaged in a DMCA fight with Lexmark over printer cartridges. SCC makes toner cartridges which work in Lexmark's printers; Lexmark has made the claim that SCC's products, by circumventing a printer "feature" that causes it to not function with cartridges manufactured by others, violate the DMCA. As part of its fight, SCC asked for an exemption specific to printers that would make its products unambiguously legal. The proposed exemption was turned down because, according to the Librarian, the existing interoperability exemption covers this case. Thus, in losing its exemption, SCC appears to have won its case with Lexmark; the company lost no time in issuing a press release to that effect.

Speaking of press releases, 321 Studios, a company which sells a DVD-copying program, has announced that it will be appealing the ruling on the making of backup copies of DVDs.

Finally, there is a growing case involving numerous people - mostly college students in the U.S. - who are fighting DMCA takedown notices from Diebold Election Systems. Diebold is a manufacturer of computerized voting machines. These students came into possession of some internal Diebold correspondence which shows a distressingly cavalier attitude toward the accuracy of election votes and the integrity of the election process in general. Diebold, rather than facing up to its problems, is simply trying to suppress the incriminating memos. For those who understand the net, the results of this effort have been entirely predictable: copies of the correspondence have now been distributed worldwide. The organizers of this effort are calling for help, however, in the form of additional mirrors and publicity. This effort deserves support; transparent and accurate management of elections is too important to be pushed aside by the DMCA.

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