Copyright Information

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a 1998 copyright law in the United States which implements the provisions of two WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization - treaties from 1996. While the first part comprises of the two WIPO treaties, the Copyright and Performances and Phonogram Treaties Implementation Act and the anti circumvention copy protection or better known as the Macrovision circumvention prohibition. Other parts of the Act include the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, the Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act, the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act and some miscellaneous provisions. The WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonogram Treaties Implementation Act is actually the law dedicated to govern circumvention of copyright protection. Some of the main copy protection systems, the Macrovision system, and the CSS, or Content Scrambling System, were both being circumvented by several commercial and non commercial programs, such as DeCSS, AnyDVD, DVD Genie, or even the free virtual CD and virtual DVD software Daemon Tools. Interestingly enough, none of the lawsuits against the listed companies or software products were successful. The main problem is that the intention is punishable, if somebody intentionally provides the software to circumvent protection with the goal to aid and abet piracy, then it's illegal. Most of the listed products were invented for completely legitimate reasons. For instance the DeCSS was invented by the Norwegian Jon Johansen with the purpose to enable his computer, running under Linux, to playback original copy protected DVDs. That other people started to use the program for piracy purposes cannot be attributed to Johansen, so he couldn't be charged with any wrongdoing. The Title II of the Act, Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, provided limitation to liability of online service providers against copyright claims, where the responsibility for posted infringing material is not their fault if having been made by a client. Under this provision, the provider has the liability to promptly remove the infringing material upon being notified. On the other hand, if the user manages to prove that the material is not of infringing nature, then the provider holds the user harmless and will not take down the said material, no matter how far the complaining party decides to go. The Title III of the act allows computer repairing individuals and companies of liability if they make security copies of material while working on a damaged computer. These copies have to be erased or destroyed after the computer has been repaired. The Title IV encompassed several provisions clarifying and adding certain facilities, and Title V regulated boat hull designs, not covered by existing copyright laws.