“The Digital Millenium Copyright (Holders) Act: An explanation of the current balance of power in digital copyright law” by Jacob Ratliff

This new Library Student Journal article by recent University of Denver grad Jacob Ratliff explores one of the pressing issues of our time: information ownership. Here’s a bit of the introduction:

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) grew out of the Copyright Act of 1976. The Copyright Act of 1976 was developed to update copyright law to reflect current technology, which at that time was the photocopy machine (Bernfield, 2006, p.3) Copy machines were seen as a threat to copyright, especially within libraries, because of the unlimited number of copies of protected materials that an individual could make. The same threat to copyright infringement was perceived with the advent and growth of the Internet. Digital objects could be copied and shared without the knowledge or consent of the copyright owner, similar to the copy machine, but on a much larger scale. Because of the rampant piracy that became more prevalent with the advent of the Internet, “copyright seemed meaningless” (Akhil and Aditi, 2008, p. 2). The development of the DMCA was meant to counter this threat.

Since its passage, the DMCA has limited how users can access digital copyrighted content, especially through libraries. While this is a positive move in combating piracy and illegal copyright infringement, it has also begun to intrude upon the use of copyrighted works. The passage of the bill was intended to extend the usage and protection of copyright into the digital realm, but it has also resulted in upholding the rights of copyright holders above those of users. This essay will examine two key aspects of the DMCA, fair use and encryption, and the ways in which they have served to shift the copyright balance of power.

Read the full article and comment below.

–Claire