Interesting copyright news

[Jonathan M. Hall]

  U.S. Copyright Office has just announced six new exemptions to
  copyright law. One of them permits professors to break copy protection
  on DVDs in order to make compilations to use in class.

  The AP covered the story thus:

  The exemption granted to film professors authorizes the breaking of
  the CSS copy-protection technology found in most DVDs. Programs to do
  so circulate widely on the Internet, though it has been illegal to
  use or distribute them.

  The professors said they need the ability to create compilations of
  DVD snippets to teach their classes - for example, taking portions of
  old and new cartoons to study how animation has evolved. Such
  compilations are generally permitted under "fair use" provisions of
  copyright law, but breaking the locks to make the compilations has
  been illegal.

  Hollywood studios have argued that educators could turn to videotapes
  and other versions without the copy protections, but the professors
  argued that DVDs are of higher quality and may preserve the original
  colors or dimensions that videotapes lack.

  "The record did not reveal any alternative means to meet the
  pedagogical needs of the professors," [Librarian of Congress James
  H.] Billington wrote.

  "U.S. Copyright Office issues new rights," by ANICK JESDANUN, AP
  Internet Writer,
  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061123/ap_on_hi_te/digital_copyright

  The Library of Congress' official "Rulemaking on Exemptions from
  Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control
  Access to Copyrighted Works" says:

  The Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of
  Copyrights, has announced the classes of works subject to the
  exemption from the prohibition against circumvention of technological
  measures that control access to copyrighted works. Persons making
  noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be
  subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17
  U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years.

  1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college
  or university's film or media studies department, when circumvention
  is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of
  those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or
  film professors.


  http://www.copyright.gov/1201/

-- 

Peter Krapp
  Associate Professor, Film and Media Studies
   Director, PhD Program in Visual Studies
    Program Faculty Member, Arts Computing Engineering
235 Humanities Instructional Building
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA  92697-2435
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=5102