changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Many of us who work in the field of film & media studies will be happy with the new changes to the US law named the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" or DMCA. If you are duplicating or 'breaking' into media protected by DRM explicitly for the purposes of comment or criticism (or teaching), you are now covered by an exemption! Read this email below which was sent by the good folks at the Society for Cinema and Media Studies:  

Dear SCMS Member:

As many of you have no doubt already heard, there is reason for SCMS members to celebrate. As part of its triennial rulemaking, the Library of Congress has announced new and expanded exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Peter Decherney, who won an earlier exemption in 2006, led the lobbying effort. In the 2009 rulemaking, Peter was joined by SCMS and a broad coalition of library and educational organizations.

One new exemption allows college and university "professors" in any field to bypass the copy protection on DVDs for educational purposes. The exemption also applies to film and media studies students, documentary filmmakers, and anyone making noncommercial videos. Together, these categories cover a wide range of activities vital to the work of SCMS members. The exemption only applies when short portions of DVDs are copied for the purposes of comment or criticism. The below links provide some more information, including a tutorial on how to go about making clips from DVDs.

LINKS

The Library of Congress’s Final Ruling and Supporting Documents

SCMS Statements on Fair Use Best Practices for Teaching and Research

DMCA Exemptions FAQ (to be updated soon)

MacWorld Magazine’s Video Demonstration of How to Rip A DVD

Worth the Wait - blog post on DMCA changes 

 Any thoughts on these new changes? Or know of any good blogs on these exemptions?