Anticircumvention under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Universal Studios v. Corley (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Jan. 23, 2002 |
| Report Number |
RL31257 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Robin Jeweler and Christopher Alan Jennings, American Law Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Title I implements
two
1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, both of which contain language
obligating member states to prevent circumvention of technological measures designed to protect
copyrighted works and to prevent tampering with the integrity of copyright management information.
To this end, the Act adds a new chapter 12 to the U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. Sections 1201 -
1205, entitled "Copyright Protection and Management Systems." Section 1201(a)(1) prohibits any
person from circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a copyrighted
work, while the antitrafficking provisions of Section 1201(a)(2) and (b)(1) cover those who traffic
in technologies designed to circumvent access control devices protecting copyrighted material from
unauthorized copying or use. Civil remedies and criminal penalties are established.
Since enactment, the copyright protection and management provisions, i.e., the
"anticircumvention" provisions, have proven controversial. Critics argue that the DMCA has a
chilling effect on rights of free speech. A university professor, Edward Felten, who decrypted
software protecting digital music was threatened with liability under the Act if he presented his
findings publicly. And a Russian computer programer, Dimitry Sklyarov, faced criminal charges
under the Act's anti-trafficking provision. Neither of these incidents, however, has resulted in a
definitive judicial interpretation of the Act.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, however, in Universal Studios v. Corley ,
recently issued
a decision which establishes an analytical constitutional framework for the anticircumvention
provisions. This report examines this decision, which considers whether public dissemination of the
computer code called DeCSS to descramble encryption of Digital Versatile Disc motion pictures may
be prohibited. In upholding a broad injunction prohibiting the posting or hyperlinking of DeCSS on
the Internet, the DMCA has survived its first constitutional challenge.
As the courts entertain more anticircumvention litigation, this report will be updated.
