The following is not meant to be legal advice.
The effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions will likely be felt only in the specific industries they were intended to reach because of their narrow scope.
The Register of Copyrights defined exemptions in terms of specific types of use and specific groups of circumventers. If this trend continues, there will be particular temporary exemptions that benefit specific actors and industries.
The exemptions are likely to influence the design and adoption of access controls over the next three years. In the context of access controls on CDs, for instance, protection measure vendors and content owners should ensure that controls do not introduce security threats onto the computers of consumers. There is potential liability and negative publicity brought on by the discovery of such threats. The public will have latitude in removing or disabling these controls.
For cellular handset providers, if consumers are able to take advantage of the ability to remove the software that ties their handset to a particular network, providers may consider new technological controls, pricing structures, or contractual obligations to retain subscribers.
The six exemptions apply only to the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision. They do not immunize conduct from liability for copyright infringement after the access control is circumvented. They do not extend to the DMCA's prohibition against trafficking in anti-circumvention devices. Distributing a tool that enables circumvention remains a violation of the DMCA despite the protection an act of circumvention may enjoy under an exemption.
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