This Title expands the Copyright Act to allow the owner or lessee of a computer to make or authorize the making of a copy of a computer program to maintain or repair that computer. This copy is permissible if made automatically when a computer is started and the computer already lawfully contains an authorized copy. After the copy has been made, it can only be used to maintain or repair and must be destroyed immediately upon completion of the maintenance or repair. It imposes on the Copyright office an advisory duty to Congress, a duty to provide information and assistance to federal agencies and the judiciary on matters relating to copyright, a participatory duty with intergovernmental organizations and meetings with foreign governments, a research and education duty, and a duty to do any other duties directed by Congress. The second provision expands the limitation of a copyright owner's exclusive rights for ephemeral recordings.
Ephemeral recordings are recordings made to simplify a transmission.
This right is only for public performances by means of digital transmission and is subject to an exemption for digital broadcasts and a statutory license for certain subscription transmissions that are not made on demand. Before the DMCA, a transmitting organization was entitled to transmit a public performance or display of a work with either a license or a right granted by the Copyright Act and to make a copy of the performance or display of a work and retain the copy for up to six months or longer if the copy was for archival purposes. If the transmitting organization cannot make a copy because of technological measures used by the copyright owner, the copyright owner is now required to provide a copy if feasible and economically reasonable. If the copyright owner fails to make a copy, the transmitting organization is not liable if it makes a copy by bypassing the copyright owner's technological measures that protected the work. The third provision is addressed to Congress' interest that the Copyright Act be amended to promote distance education.