Clearinghouse Topic Areas: |
|
|
|
|
 Twelve Years Under the DMCA at the Electronic Frontier FoundationDavid Abrams, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, March 12, 2010
Abstract: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) describes multiple instances in which the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have been used to stifle legitimate speech rather than stop pirates.
This EFF
white paper describes numerous instances in which copyright
holders use the DMCA to stifle free expression and scientific research.
In many cases, the threat of civil or criminal penalties
delayed the disclosure of information of vulnerabilities and security
flaws in software that the copyright owner knew about but had not
bothered to fix. In other cases, researchers were prevented
from presenting information that would have encouraged the
development of more secure systems. The EFF concludes that
the anti-circumvention
provisions of the law have not been used as
Congress envisioned and as a result "the DMCA has developed into a
serious threat to several important public policy priorities" including
fair use,
free expression, scientific research and competition and
innovation.
|
|
 Recent C&Ds; |
|
|
| Related News |
|
|
| Related Resources |
|
|
|
