On October 28 1998 a bill by the name of the Digital Millennium Copy right Act was signed into law by President Clinton. The law implements two treaties of the world Intellectual Property Organization of 1996. The two main ones were the WIPO Copyright treaty and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms treaty. The DMCA has 5 titles.
1. WIPO Copyright and Performance and Phonograms Treaties Implementation Act of 1998 2. Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitations Act 3. Computer Maintenance Competition Act 4. Miscellaneous Provisions 5. Vessel Hull Design Protection Act
Title 1 makes a technical amendment and implements 2 new prohibitions in Title 17 of the US Code. It also adds a criminal penalty and civil liability for violation. The DMCA grants the same protection to outside works as WCT and WPPT member countries. The DMCA requires all lawsuits to be filed only when the copyright is duly registered, all foreign works being exempt from this requirement.
When a copyright has not fallen into public domain in its own country, it is to be protected by member countries. The Berne convention and the TRIPS agreement both had similar requirements. In 1995 it was implemented by the Uruguay Round Agreement Act. The DMCA extended the copyrights to the digital transference of works. The DMCA did not require technological companies to make any changes in their manufacture except for analog video cassette recorders in a period of 18 months had to have a system called Macro vision which prevents unauthorized copying of video cassettes.
There are exceptions provided in the law for law enforcement and intelligence activities of the government. There are six other notable exceptions:
o Non profit library o Reverse Engineering o Encryption Research o Protection of Minors o Personal Privacy o Security tasting
Title 2 laid down new laws for copyright infringements. This involves service providers. The 4 places they are connected are Transitory Communications, System caching, Storage of information at the direction of others and Information location tools. Most of the provisions take effect immediately when the treaty takes effect however some of them will be effective later.
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