Library of Congress October 2020 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The United States Copyright Office is conducting the eighth triennial rulemaking proceeding under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (``DMCA''), concerning possible temporary exemptions to the DMCA's prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. In this proceeding, the Copyright Office is considering petitions for the renewal of exemptions that were granted during the seventh triennial rulemaking along with petitions for new exemptions to engage in activities not currently permitted by existing exemptions. On June 22, 2020, the Office published a notification of inquiry requesting petitions to renew existing exemptions and comments in response to those petitions, as well as petitions for new exemptions. Having carefully considered the comments received in response to that notification, in this notice of proposed rulemaking (``NPRM''), the Office announces its intention to recommend each of the existing exemptions for readoption. This NPRM also initiates three rounds of public comment on the newly-proposed exemptions. Interested parties are invited to make full legal and evidentiary submissions in support of or in opposition to the proposed exemptions, in accordance with the requirements set forth below.