Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a law in the United States of America that amends title 17 of the U.S. Code, which relates to copyrights.

The DMCA is controversial mostly due to the changes made to title 17 section 1201. In paragraph (a) of that section is the declaration that "[n]o person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." (See software cracking.)

On July 17, 2001, Dmitry Skylarov, a Russian citizen, was arrested for violating this provision of the law. Protests ensued, which were coordinated from the website www.freesklyarov.org. Possibly as a result of these protests, the US government has agreed to drop all charges filed against Dimitry, provided that he testify at the trial of his company, Elcomsoft.

Components of the DMCA may violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Cases involving the DMCA have not yet reached the Supreme Court. There are efforts in Congress to modify the Act. Richard Boucher, a Democratic congressman from Virginia, is leading one of these efforts.

The lobbyists who wrote the DMCA claim that it was needed in order to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty into US Law. Other legal experts claim that the US had all necessary laws in place for WIPO compliance before the DMCA was passed into law.

External links:

• title 17 of the U.S. code
• title 17 section 1201
• Skylarov complaint
• http://www.freesklyarov.org/ website
• Text of the DMCA
• Richard Boucher website