Copyright Office Releases DMCA Exemption Hearing Ruling
Here. Looks like they are allowing the circumvention of obsolete computer software and games, eBooks for disability purposes, and a little bit for censorware (see Seth Finkelstein's post on his win! and Ed Felten's explanation on this) and damaged dongles. The rest, for commentary and fair use with DVDs, Cds, etc. and for information security research were not accepted.
Interesting:
-16- Proposed class: Public domain works or works distributed without restriction.
Several comments sought an exemption for works that are either public domain, open source or "open access," but to which access controls are applied. The commenters addressing open source and open access works provided absolutely no information in support of their requests. Aside from a proposal relating to public domain material on DVDs, there was a paucity of information relating to other public domain works. These commenters have overlooked that if a work that is entirely in the public domain is protected by an access control measure, the prohibition on circumvention will not be applicable. Therefore, no exemption is needed.
In the DVD context, a proponent provided a series of lists of audiovisual works that it contended are in the public domain, some of which it alleged are distributed bundled with copyrighted material. However, opponents of the proposed exception indicated that many if not all the works named by the proponent are available in unencrypted (VHS) format, are not bundled with copyrighted material, are themselves still subject to copyright protection, or are not encrypted by the Content Scrambling System ("CSS") or otherwise subject to an access control, effectively rebutting the proponent's showing.
Posted by Mary Hodder at October 28, 2003 01:30 PM