Legal Research

Movie Exemptions for Anti-circumvention Copyright Rule

By David

On July 26th, 2010 the Librarian of Congress issued an exemption on six classes works that will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls under 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1). See http://www.copyright.gov/1201 for the full determination. The 1st exemption of The Librarian of Congress is motion pictures on DVDs. The ruling allows ?Educational uses by college and university professors and by college and university film and media studies students.?
What does this mean to for law school faculty? This new ruling means that law faculty can legally extract movie clips and incorporate them into lectures. The exemption also allows them to use copied portions of movies in non-classroom settings under certain circumstances. This is a great breakthrough for educators. We await further interpretations but it is a hopeful sign that higher education is getting exemptions to use materials in this manner. The true purpose of Copyright is starting to be recognized ?to promote the progress of knowledge and learning.?
(Post-David)

Full post as published by Cocky Law Blawg on August 13, 2010 (boomark / email).