Opinion ID: 775783
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The DMCA

Text: 36 The DMCA was enacted in 1998 to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO Treaty), which requires contracting parties to provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law. WIPO Treaty, Apr. 12, 1997, art. 11, S. Treaty Doc. No. 105-17 (1997), available at 1997 WL 447232. Even before the treaty, Congress had been devoting attention to the problems faced by copyright enforcement in the digital age. Hearings on the topic have spanned several years. See, e.g., WIPO Copyright Treaties Implementation Act and Online Copyright Liability Limitation Act: Hearing on H.R. 2281 and H.R. 2280 Before the Subcomm. on Courts and Intellectual Property of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 105th Cong. (1997); NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995: Hearings on H.R. 2441 Before the Subcomm. on Courts and Intellectual Property of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 104th Cong. (1996); NII Copyright Protection Act of 1995: Joint Hearing on H.R. 2441 and S. 1284 Before the Subcomm. on Courts and Intellectual Property of the House Comm. on the Judiciary and the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 104th Cong. (1995); H.R. Rep. No. 105-551 (1998); S. Rep. No. 105-190 (1998). This legislative effort resulted in the DMCA. 37 The Act contains three provisions targeted at the circumvention of technological protections. The first is subsection 1201(a)(1)(A), the anti-circumvention provision. 9 This provision prohibits a person from circumvent[ing] a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under [Title 17, governing copyright]. The Librarian of Congress is required to promulgate regulations every three years exempting from this subsection individuals who would otherwise be adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses. 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(B)-(E). 38 The second and third provisions are subsections 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1), the anti-trafficking provisions. Subsection 1201(a)(2), the provision at issue in this case, provides: 39 No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that - 40 (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; 41 (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or 42 (C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. 43 Id. § 1201(a)(2). To circumvent a technological measure is defined, in pertinent part, as to descramble a scrambled work... or otherwise to... bypass... a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner. Id. § 1201(a)(3)(A). 44 Subsection 1201(b)(1) is similar to subsection 1201(a)(2), except that subsection 1201(a)(2) covers those who traffic in technology that can circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under Title 17, whereas subsection 1201(b)(1) covers those who traffic in technology that can circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under Title 17. Id. § 1201(a)(2), (b)(1) (emphases added). In other words, although both subsections prohibit trafficking in a circumvention technology, the focus of subsection 1201(a)(2) is circumvention of technologies designed to prevent access to a work, and the focus of subsection 1201(b)(1) is circumvention of technologies designed to permit access to a work but prevent copying of the work or some other act that infringes a copyright. See S. Rep. No. 105-190, at 11-12 (1998). Subsection 1201(a)(1) differs from both of these anti- trafficking subsections in that it targets the use of a circumvention technology, not the trafficking in such a technology. 45 The DMCA contains exceptions for schools and libraries that want to use circumvention technologies to determine whether to purchase a copyrighted product, 17 U.S.C. § 1201(d); individuals using circumvention technology for the sole purpose of trying to achieve interoperability of computer programs through reverse-engineering, id. § 1201(f); encryption research aimed at identifying flaws in encryption technology, if the research is conducted to advance the state of knowledge in the field, id. § 1201(g); and several other exceptions not relevant here. 46 The DMCA creates civil remedies, id. § 1203, and criminal sanctions, id. § 1204. It specifically authorizes a court to grant temporary and permanent injunctions on such terms as it deems reasonable to prevent or restrain a violation. Id. § 1203(b)(1).