Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at this law enacted by President Clinton in 1998 in support of the treaty signed at the World Intellectual Property Organization at Geneva in 1996. The paper explains who is affected by the act, who is exempted, and the law's objective. The paper also examines the case of eBay and how it has been affected by the law as well as how other Internet businesses are managing to circumvent the Act's provisions.

From the Paper:

"Some of the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act are as follows: It is considered a crime to circumvent the copyright or anti-piracy measures that are built into all commercial software of today. The fact that software can be illegally copied and distributed by a set of people who can actually crack the codes that protect this software is also dealt with. Those persons who manufacture or sell or copy and distribute these codes will be severely punished. However, in certain cases, like for example, when software has to be assessed or tested for the extent of security offered by the codes, or to conduct encryption research, cracking the code is legally allowed. Likewise, certain sets of people are allowed to circumvent copyright and anti-piracy laws. These people may be academicians, or be in charge of a free library, or run an educational institution. (The Digital Millennium Copyright Act) "

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