DMCA, Fair Use and the Librarian: A Case for Negotiated Rulemaking

The Internet poses the ultimate paradox for copyright owners. The medium makes it so easy to disseminate a work of authorship that anyone, with little more than a desire to do so, can now publish a book, a play, distribute movies, and music; all of which can be enjoyed simultaneously by an unimaginable number of people all over the world. Yet, simply because a work of authorship has become so easy to disseminate in digital form, the Internet also threatens the very economic value of copyrighted works. Understanding that "what one technology can do, another can generally undo," copyright owners have sought legal protection for these self-help measures. In late 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ratified the WIPO Copyright Treaty. This treaty obligates signatory nations to "provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures ... which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law." In the United States, this treaty obligation is implemented by Title I of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).Air Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'DMCA, Fair Use and the Librarian: A Case for Negotiated Rulemaking' with ISBN 9781423526858 and ISBN 1423526856.