The Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, has announced the classes of works subject to the exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years.

1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or film professors.

2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

4. Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

5. Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.

6. Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

These exemptions will go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register on November 27, 2006 and will remain in effect through October 27, 2009. >from *Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works*. November 22, 2006

related context
> isamu kaneko case. 2004. what's wrong with the arrest?
> grokster and morpheus survive. a federal judge ruled that companies providing peer-to-peer (p2p) file sharing software cannot be held liable for copyright infringement by users of the software. 2003
> jon johansen case. criminal charges for accessing own dvd. freedom of speech should not be sacrificed in the movie industry's war to restrict the public from playing dvds on their platform of choice, backing up dvds they have purchased, and making other fair uses of dvds. 2002
> edward felten case. freedom of speech should not be sacrificed in the recording industry's war to restrict the public from making copies of digital music. eff asked a federal court to declare that scientists can publish their research on digital music security weaknesses. 2001
> dmitry skylarov case. the first programmer jailed simply for coding and distributing software --permits electronic book owners to convert the e-book format so they can make use without access restrictions. "dmitry programmed a format converter which has many legitimate uses, including enabling the blind to hear e-books," the first criminal prosecution brought under the controversial statute which forbids distributing technology or information that can be helpful in bypassing technological restrictions. 2001
> on intellectual property.

imago
> new rights research digest cabin

sonic flow
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