Anti-circumvention
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-Circumvention law has made the circumvention of some technological barriers to copying intellectual property illegal.
For example, Sec. 1201 (a)(1)(A) of the DMCA states that (among other things):
- No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
Specifically, if there is some "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work", it is now illegal to circumvent that measure. Before the DMCA, purchasing a music compact disc and copying it to a hard drive as mp3s (so the music could be listened to without the need for the physical disc) could be strongly argued as Fair Use. But under this section, if someone purchased a music compact disc that had some technological measure on it that kept them from copying it to their hard drive as mp3s, it would now be illegal for them to circumvent that technological measure.
The requirement for anti-circumvention laws was globalised in 1996 with the creation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty.
Contents |
[edit] Distribution of Circumvention Tools
Sec. 1201 (a)(2)(A) of the DMCA states that
- No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
This section says that you cannot create or distribute tools or software that allows circumvention of technological anti-copying measures. To extend the above example, it is illegal for someone else to create a method to turn a protected purchased disc into mp3s, or to give that method to others.
[edit] Reverse Engineering and Circumvention
Sec. 1201 (f)(1) of the DMCA states that
- Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)(1)(A), a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, and that have not previously been readily available to the person engaging in the circumvention, to the extent any such acts of identification and analysis do not constitute infringement under this title.
This section says that if you legally obtain a program that is protected, you are allowed to reverse-engineer and circumvent the protection for the sole purpose of creating an interoperable and independent computer program. This interoperation must not already be readily available.
[edit] Anti-Circumvention Rules of the European Union
The following anti-circumventing rules were implemented in European Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the council of May 22, 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.
This directive states in article 6, 'Obligations as to technological measures':
- 1. Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of any effective technological measures, which the person concerned carries out in the knowledge, or with reasonable grounds to know, that he or she is pursuing that objective.
- 2. Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the manufacture, import, distribution, sale, rental, advertisement for sale or rental, or possession for commercial purposes of devices, products or components or the provision of services which:
- (a) are promoted, advertised or marketed for the purpose of circumvention of, or
- (b) have only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent, or
- (c) are primarily designed, produced, adapted or performed for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of, any effective technological measures.
- 3. For the purposes of this Directive, the expression ‘technological measures’ means any technology, device or component that, in the normal course of its operation, is designed to prevent or restrict acts, in respect of works or other subjectmatter, which are not authorised by the rightholder of any copyright or any right related to copyright as provided for by law or the sui generis right provided for in Chapter III of Directive 96/9/EC. Technological measures shall be deemed ‘effective’ where the use of a protected work or other subjectmatter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process, such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective.
- 4. Notwithstanding the legal protection provided for in paragraph 1, in the absence of voluntary measures taken by rightholders, including agreements between rightholders and other parties concerned, Member States shall take appropriate measures to ensure that rightholders make available to the beneficiary of an exception or limitation provided for in national law in accordance with Article 5(2)(a), (2)(c), (2)(d), (2)(e), (3)(a), (3)(b) or (3)(e) the means of benefiting from that exception or limitation, to the extent necessary to benefit from that exception or limitation and where that beneficiary has legal access to the protected work or subject-matter concerned. (...)
