Anticircumvention misuse

The anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act penalize both the circumvention of technical protection measures, and supplying the means for such circumvention. Such "paracopyright" effectively grants copyright holders sweeping new ability to impose terms of acces...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:UCLA law review 2003-06, Vol.50 (5), p.1095
Main Author: Burk, Dan L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access control
Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998-US
Fair use
Intellectual property
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The anticircumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act penalize both the circumvention of technical protection measures, and supplying the means for such circumvention. Such "paracopyright" effectively grants copyright holders sweeping new ability to impose terms of access on content users. At some point, such leveraging of access control seems certain to overstep the bounds militated by sound policy or intended by Congress. In the past, abuse of intellectual property rights has been curtailed under the doctrine of misuse. This article argues that because DMCA "paracopyright" is ripe for abuse, limits on overreaching may be imposed by applying the misuse doctrine in this new area. This new application of misuse doctrine may be guided by the standards established in previous applications to patent and copyright law, and may serve a similar function in regulating the excesses invited by the anticircumvention right.
ISSN:0041-5650
1943-1724