Understanding the DMCA
by Brett Keller
August 2, 2004
Anyone whose life or career is involved with intellectual property needs to know about and understand the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). That means anyone from musicians to film makers; even ship vessel haul designers. In 1998 the DMCA was passed into law marking some of the most significant amendments to United States Copyright law since 1976. The recent inceptions of downloadable media, peer to peer file sharing and digital media copyright piracy on a massive scale, have also made the DMCA extremely significant in its time.
Congress didn’t decide to draft the DMCA just because of new technological advances affecting intellectual property – it was also compelled to act because of international treaty obligations. In 1996 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) drafted two amendments to the Berne Convention. WIPO is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations dedicated to the protection and promotion of intellectual property throughout the world. The Berne Convention, first drafted in 1886, was the first treaty to create an international agreement on copyright law. The treaties passed in 1996 were the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT). In order to comply with these treaties the US needed to amend its own copyright law. The DMCA was created to fulfill the needed amendments and included some additional changes to update the law.
The following are two summaries of the act minus all the legal jargon. The DMCA has a lot of parts that are really irrelevant to the music world so one version contains the entirety of the Act and the other contains a more in depth look at just the parts that will matter to people in the music business.
Keep in mind that these summaries are designed to give Joe and Jane Creator a better understanding of their rights and the laws that pertain to their business. They should by no means be used as a reference in court or in lieu of the legal expertise of an attorney.
Article continues. Choose your path | |
| If you want to know specifics about the DMCA, go here | If you area a musician and just want to know about the parts of the DMCA that apply to you, go here |
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