Librarian of Congress’s Digital Copyright
Ruling Limits Fair Use
Librarian of Congress James Billington has released his ruling on the anticircumvention provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, allowing only two exceptions to the measure. The provision, Section 1201(a) of the act, makes it illegal to access copyrighted works that are protected by technological measures such as passwords or encryption unless the access is authorized through rules set out by the Librarian of Congress.
ALA’s Washington Office reports that Billington adopted the recommendation of Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters to provide exemptions only for malfunctions and to determine which sites are blocked by filtering software. The ruling ignores comments submitted by ALA and other library groups urging fair use exemptions from the act’s new technological restrictions.
“The Copyright Office has issued a misguided ruling taking away from students, researchers, teachers, and librarians the long-standing basic right of fair use to our nation’s digital resources,” said ALA President Nancy Kranich. “All library users will be impacted.” ALA says it is considering its options, which include requesting a reconsideration of the ruling as well as litigation.
Posted October 30, 2000.
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