Balancing Innovation and IP to Advance the Digital Economy

Every three years, the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) shares its views with the United States Copyright Office regarding proposed exemptions from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) prohibition against circumventing copyright protection technologies. These exemptions are vital to enabling innovation and free expression in the digital age. They help students learn by making fair use of clips from movies, make e-books accessible to the print-disabled, and allow changing the settings on mobile phones so that they can be used with different wireless carriers.

Oct 27, the Acting Librarian of Congress, adopting the Copyright Office’s recommendations, issued the latest set of exemptions Importantly, there are also new exemptions covering emerging areas where access controls have increasingly become an issue. New exemptions cover a range of security research activities, as well as vehicle repair; playing and preserving old video games; and using 3D printers with third-party feedstock. While we are still reviewing the details of these new exemptions, and particularly the scope of the new exemption for good-faith security research, these appear to be positive steps toward enhancing cybersecurity, ensuring the right of all Americans to repair vehicles they own, and encouraging innovation.