Surprising New DMCA Exceptions: Jailbreaking Smartphones, Noncommercial Videos Somewhat Allowed
from the didn't-expect-this dept
Well here's a surprise. The US Copyright Office finally used its obligated DMCA exemption rulemaking process to support exemptions that protect consumers. As you may recall, every few years the US Copyright Office is obligated, by law, to listen to requests for specific classes of work that should be exempted from the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause and then recommend that the Library of Congress adopt certain exemptions (if it so chooses). Usually the exemptions are extremely limited and do little to protect consumers. In fact, in the past, the EFF has argued it wasn't even worth requesting exemptions for consumer issues, saying the process was "simply too broken." This year, however, they did participate, and actually got some things through.Included in the rulemaking were exemptions that say jailbreaking smartphones is legal, saying:
"When one jailbreaks a smartphone in order to make the operating system on that phone interoperable with an independently created application that has not been approved by the maker of the smartphone or the maker of its operating system, the modifications that are made purely for the purpose of such interoperability are fair uses."Separately, it approved getting around DRM on DVDs for use in non-commercial or educational video works. This is a blow to Hollywood, which in the past has tried to suggest that if educational institution want to use a fair use clip from a video, they should just set up a video camera on a tripod pointed at a TV screen playing the DVD. That said, the Copyright Office made it clear that these uses are very limited, and must be for purposes of "criticism or comment," and the maker of the new work must show that the circumvention is "necessary" to make the video work, saying "where alternatives to circumvention can be used to achieve the noninfringing purpose, such noncircumventing alternatives should be used." That seems extremely limiting, since you can almost always claim that some sort of alternative could be used.
The EFF also notes that the Copyright Office renewed one good exemption from a previous rulemaking, while clarifying what it covered, where it noted that unlocking a mobile phone to take it to another network is not violating the DMCA.
There were some additional classes approved, including video game DRM, in certain cases, where the DRM is being broken for the sake of security testing. They also approved getting around DRM in the form of computer dongles when those dongles are considered "obsolete," defined as "no longer manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace." This one is also basically an expansion of an earlier ruling. The final one is also more or less a repeat of earlier rulemakings, concerning allowing ebooks to be read aloud for the blind -- even though the Copyright Office recommended against it, the Librarian of Congress included it anyway.
Separately, it is notable what was requested and rejected, but we'll do a separate post on that later.
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Filed Under: circumvention, dmca, exemption, jailbreaking, videos
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*sigh*
EFF is right--it's broken.
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But how...?
If so, unless you can crack the DRM completely on your own, you are still a criminal.
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Re: But how...?
I also find it frustrating how specific these exceptions are. The i-phone exception applies only to smart phones, even though the same logic ought to allow jail-braking of ipod touches and ipads.
Furthermore, we have no guarantee that in three years, these exceptions might get yanked. How can someone make a business plan taking advantage of these exceptions knowing that there's a good chance they could go away in a few years.
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Re: But how...?
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100725/22194810352.shtml
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This is the one that surprised me ...
It surprised me in that it cuts into, and perhaps will ruin, the market for books on tape, as the technology of text to speech matures.
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Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
Those things(tapes) still exist?
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Re: Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
LOL ... they are still called "books on tape" even though they are CD's, mp3's, FLAC, etc today. People have been using term "Audio Books" also but that has yet to catch on.
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Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
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Not that every human speaker is capable of the latter, but it certainly makes for a more enjoyable listening when they do.
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Re: Re: Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
Same w/the phones - Apple wanted serious penalties for jailbreaking iPhones for infringment, and that just went out the window. Jailbreaking will void the warranty, but they can't sue you for doing so.
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If people can do it, that is proof enough there is a way to do it.
Is just engineers don't understand how it happens and so are unable to devise a device for that purpose at the moment.
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Re: Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
Actually the inflections are the last thing that text to speech actually need. If inflections are encoded into the book as a tag you can get by the this. Do I think that they will be able to do this without actually tagging the text, not in the near term, long term however yes.
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Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
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Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
listen to something read by jim dale. that market is perfectly safe.
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Re: This is the one that surprised me ...
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Jail breaking iPhones ok'd
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Re: Jail breaking iPhones ok'd
Oh wait, that sorta already happened!
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Am I in violation or not?
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Star Wars episode III review?
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Re: Star Wars episode III review?
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Still don't know....
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Terrified
Someone make it stop!
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How about when the DRM needs to be broken just to get the game to play on a modern system, and the company is no longer interested in helping you, or the developers have gone out of business?
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Another Victory for Consumers
While it is unclear exactly how the situation in San Francisco will resolve it itself in the future, whether the bill shock issue will be readdressed by the CTIA, or the future scope of the Copyright Office’s final rule, one thing is clear. Consumers are ending up on the winning side of these decisions, and judging from industry press releases, it is not happy about it.
Read More: http://bit.ly/cxAsnW
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