Software Freedom Conservancy filed multiple exemptions in the USACopyright Office Triennial Rulemaking Process under the Digital MillenniumCopyright Act (DMCA). In this episode, Karen and Bradley explore thedetails of Conservancy's filing to request permission to circumventtechnological restriction measures in order to investigate infringement ofother people's copyright, which is a necessary part of investigations ofalleged violations of the GPL and other copyleft licenses.

Show Notes:

Segment 0 (00:39)

• Bradley claims that you'll now love the audcast more than ever(02:51)
• Conservancy filed many exemptions as part of the currently ongoingtriennial DMCA Process. (02:50)

Segment 1 (04:22)

• Everyone in the Free Software community wishes the USA's DigitalMillennium Copyright Act didn't exist. (05:24)
• Bradley is currently doing research going to the year 1790 that showsthe foundations of the copyright act, but Karen points out that Bradleyisn't a professional copyright historian (yet). He points out heis an amateur copyright historian (05:45)
• DMCA is the USA's implementation of the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT),but is more a restrictive copyright act than the WCT requires. (06:50)
• Bradley mentioned that the three videos from the Copyright Office,whichare linked to from Conservancy's blog post on the subject that, whilethey are Copyright Office propaganda, that are helpful to explain theDMCA (10:57):
  • A Legal Overview of § 1201 (PDF slides only).
  • The Triennial Rulemaking Process for §1201 (PDF slides only).
  • Streamlined Petitions for Renewed Exemptions (PDF slides only).
• Conservancy filed the mostexemption requests in the 2020/2021 Rulemaking Process (21:25)

Segment 2 (28:07)

• Conservancy filed an exemption requestand a “LongForm” comment in support of it that was labeled“Class 16: Computer Programs &—; Copyright License Investigation”by the Copyright Office (29:00)
• Bradleymentioned that people can get arrested just for giving talks under the DMCA,referring to Dmitry Sklyarov. Adobe simply called the FBI and got himarrested under DMCA. (38:50)

Segment 3 (34:36)

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Free as in Freedom is produced by Dan Lynchof danlynch.org.Thememusic written and performedby Mike Tarantinowith Charlie Paxson on drums.

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