The USA's Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that it has won a renewal of exemptions to the Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), including the upholding of jailbreaking rights for smartphones as well as new and expanded legal protections for video remixing.
"The DMCA creates a cloud of legal uncertainty over American consumers - whether they are tinkerers, artists, or just looking to make their gadgets work better," said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. "The ruling from the Copyright Office today goes a long way towards mitigating some of the DMCA's most grievous harms."
The Copyright Office renewed EFF's exemption request that protects smartphone jailbreaking, liberating phone owners to run operating systems and applications from any source, not just those approved by the manufacturer.
However, the Copyright Office declined to expand that exemption to tablets and video game consoles, arguing that the category of "tablets" is not well defined and that jailbreaking video game consoles might lead to more copyright infringement.
"If you bought your gadget, you own it, and you should be able to install whatever software you please without facing potential legal threats," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "We're pleased the Copyright Office renewed our smartphone jailbreaking exemption request, but we're disappointed that it couldn't see that consumers deserve the same rights for all the gadgets they own. We'll be back with more exemption requests in the next rulemaking, and we're hopeful the Copyright Office will keep moving in the right direction."
The Copyright Office's rulemaking process is conducted every three years in order to mitigate the danger the DMCA poses to legitimate, non-infringing uses of copyrighted materials. The DMCA prohibits "circumventing" digital rights management (DRM) and "other technical protection measures" used to control access to copyrighted works. While the DMCA still chills competition, free speech, and fair use, today's exemptions help give consumers and artists protection from the law's extensive reach.
