Opinion ID: 787580
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Applicable Statute

Text: 3 Chamberlain sued Skylink, alleging violations of the patent and copyright laws. Chamberlain's second amended complaint, dated March 26, 2003, enumerated eight causes of action against Skylink, including the infringement of three patents. The matter on appeal involves only Chamberlain's allegation that Skylink is violating the DMCA, specifically the anti-trafficking provision of § 1201(a)(2). The District Court first denied Chamberlain's motion for summary judgment of its DMCA claim, Chamberlain I, and then granted Skylink's motion for summary judgment on the DMCA claim. Chamberlain II. The District Court also dismissed all other counts. 4 The District Court's ruling, along with the appellate briefs that the parties and amici filed with this court, raise numerous provisions of the DMCA for our consideration. The key provisions at issue, however, are all in § 1201(a). 5 § 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems 6 (a) Violations regarding circumvention of technological measures. 7 (1) (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.... 8 (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that— 9 (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; 10 (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 11 (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. 12 (3) As used in this subsection— 13 (A) to circumvent a technological measure means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and 14 (B) a technological measure effectively controls access to a work if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work. 15 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a).