DMCA

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

USA

A federal law (Pub. L. No. 105-304, 112 Stat. 2860) that implemented the following 1996 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties:

• The WIPO Copyright Treaty .

• The WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty.

Among other things, the DMCA:

• Restricts the circumvention of technological measures (also known as digital rights management or DRM) used to protect copyrighted works.

• Prohibits the tampering of any copyright management information contained in a copyrighted work.

• Creates new limitations on liability for copyright infringement by online service providers, subject to certain conditions.

• Expands the existing exemption in the Copyright Act relating to computer programs to allow the owner or lessee of a computer to copy a program in the course of repairing or maintaining that computer.