This report describes the statutory basis for the exemptions, the triennial rulemaking proceeding that results in them, and the exemptions granted in 2006. Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( P.L. 105-304 ) in 1998, in part, to help copyright owners protect their exclusive rights against infringement facilitated by digital technologies, including the Internet. Section 1201 of the DMCA outlaws circumvention of any access control devices, such as password codes, encryption, and scrambling, that copyright owners may use to protect copyrighted works. The DMCA's prohibition on circumvention is not absolute, however. Second, the DMCA establishes a rulemaking proceeding, wherein the Librarian of Congress, acting upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, may exempt for three years a "particular class of copyrighted works" from the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention. On October 6, 2008, the Copyright Office initiated a fourth § 1201 rulemaking, in order to determine the 2009 exemptions. Once the proposals for exempted classes of works are received, the Copyright Office will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking and then hold a series of hearings in the spring of 2009 in which proponents and opponents of the proposed exemptions may present their views. 1201 , the Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act of 2007), in the 110 th Congress; the bill was later referred to the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property. 1201 would have codified the Librarian of Congress's 2006 exemptions and made them permanent (rather than have them be subject to renewal, revision, or rejection in 2009). In addition, Section 3(b) of the bill would have authorized six additional exemptions, for the following circumstances in which technological protection measures may be circumvented:
(1) instructors wishing to make a compilation of portions of audiovisual works for educational use in a classroom (and therefore not limited solely to college-level media studies courses, as in the Librarian's first exemption);
(2) consumers wanting to skip past or avoid commercials or personally objectionable content in an audiovisual work (however, the sponsor of the bill cautions that this provision "does not authorize consumers to make back up DVDs for archival or any other purpose");
(3) consumers interested in transmitting a work over a home or personal network, but not in order to upload that work to the Internet for mass, indiscriminate redistribution;
(4) individuals wishing to gain access to one or more public domain works that are included in a compilation consisting primarily of works in the public domain;
(5) reporters, teachers, and others wanting to gain access to a work of substantial public interest solely for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research; and
(6) a library or an archive satisfying the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 108(a)(2), needing to preserve or secure a copy or to replace a copy in its collections that is damaged, deteriorating, lost, or stolen. Conclusion

The 2006 exemptions to the DMCA's prohibition on circumvention of technological measures controlling access to copyrighted works allows users, under certain circumstances, to circumvent those access controls in order to (1) make compilations of video clips for film and media studies courses; (2) archive obsolete computer programs or games; (3) bypass "dongles," or hardware locks, that are obsolete; (4) use read-aloud functions or screen readers with e-books; (5) connect wireless telephone handsets to communication networks; and (6) test for or correct security flaws in works distributed on CD. These exemptions are effective until October 27, 2009, at which time they will be superseded by new exemptions issued by the Librarian of Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, following a notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding conducted pursuant to 17 U.S.C. H.R. §§ 1201(a)(1)(B)-(C) in 2000, 2003, and 2006
Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, in part, to help copyright owners protect their exclusive rights against infringement facilitated by digital technologies, including the Internet. Section 1201 of the DMCA outlaws circumvention of any access control devices, such as password codes, encryption, and scrambling, that copyright owners may use to protect access to copyrighted works. The DMCA's prohibition on circumvention is not absolute, however. In addition to several statutory exceptions to the general anti-circumvention provision, the DMCA authorizes the Librarian of Congress, upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, to grant temporary exemptions in order to ensure that the public may be able to use certain copyrighted works in non-infringing ways, including engaging in "fair use" of such works.
Exemptions to the prohibition on circumvention of access controls are granted every three years, following a notice-and-comment rulemaking proceeding that the Register of Copyrights conducts. There have been three determinations made by the Librarian of Congress to date, in 2000, 2003, and 2006. At the conclusion of the Copyright Office's third "§ 1201 rulemaking" proceeding, the Librarian of Congress recognized six exemptions that are currently in effect. These exemptions, which expire on October 28, 2009, permit the circumvention of access control devices, under specified circumstances, in order to (1) make compilations of video clips for film and media studies courses; (2) archive obsolete computer programs or games; (3) bypass "dongles," or hardware locks, that are obsolete; (4) use read-aloud functions or screen readers with e-books; (5) connect wireless telephone handsets to communication networks; and (6) test for or correct security flaws in works distributed on compact discs. On October 6, 2008, the Copyright Office initiated a fourth § 1201 rulemaking by publishing a notice in the Federal Register that sought written comments from all interested parties concerning evidence of adverse effects of the DMCA's circumvention prohibition on noninfringing uses of certain classes of works. Once these proposals for exempted classes of works are received, the Copyright Office will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking and then hold a series of hearings in the spring of 2009 in which proponents and opponents of the proposed exemptions may present their views.
This report reviews the statutory basis for the triennial exemptions, explains the Copyright Office's rulemaking process pursuant to § 1201 of the DMCA, summarizes the exemptions granted and rejected in 2006, and describes public reactions to the 2006 exemptions. In addition, it examines provisions of a bill from the 110th Congress, H.R. 1201, the Freedom and Innovation Revitalizing U.S. Entrepreneurship Act of 2007 (FAIR USE Act of 2007), that would have codified the 2006 exemptions and thus made them permanent. The bill would also have authorized six additional exemptions, in which technological protection measures may be circumvented to accomplish the following purposes: (1) instructors wishing to make a compilation of portions of audiovisual works for educational use in a classroom; (2) consumers wanting to skip past or avoid commercials or personally objectionable content in an audiovisual work; (3) consumers interested in transmitting a work over a home network, but not in order to upload that work to the Internet for mass, indiscriminate redistribution; (4) individuals wishing to gain access to one or more public domain works that are included in a compilation consisting primarily of works in the public domain; (5) reporters, teachers, and others wanting to gain access to a work of substantial public interest solely for purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, or research; and (6) a library or an archive needing to preserve or secure a copy or to replace a copy in its collections that is damaged, deteriorating, lost, or stolen.