Rulemaking on Exemptions from Prohibition on Circumvention of Technological Measures that Control Access to Copyrighted Works

The Copyright Office received 74 comments in response to its notice of inquiry in this rulemaking. A significant number of these comments do not adhere to the requirements of the Office's Notice of Inquiry. For example, a number of commenters have failed to propose a “class of works,” have proposed broad classes without factual support for such a class, have not identified a causal connection between a noninfringing use and the prohibition on circumvention, or have not identified an access control that would implicate the prohibition of circumvention. While the value of such comments to this statutory inquiry is questionable, the Copyright Office has decided to post these comments.

It should be noted, however, that the reply comment period is an opportunity to be responsive to the initial proposals, and the Office will only consider reply comments that provide additional facts and/or arguments in further support of or in opposition to genuine proposals for exemptions contained in the comments that appear below. The only mechanism for raising new proposed exemptions at this time is the discretionary petition process discussed in the last paragraph of the Notice of Inquiry.