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Copyright Office Amends Digital Rules

New rules that allow consumers a bit more freedom to copy CD’s and DVD’s for backup and personal useDrm_anti_wall as well as to unlock cell phones from a single carrier have been issued by the U.S. Copyright Office. (full list after the jump)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it’s a step forward, but much more needs to be done.

1.
Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or
university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is
accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of portions of
those works for educational use in the classroom by media studies or
film professors.

       

2. Computer programs and video games
distributed in formats that have become obsolete and that require the
original media or hardware as a condition of access, when circumvention
is accomplished for the purpose of preservation or archival
reproduction of published digital works by a library or archive. A
format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary
to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer
manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial
marketplace.

       

3. Computer programs protected by dongles
that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are
obsolete. A dongle shall be considered obsolete if it is no longer
manufactured or if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably
available in the commercial marketplace.

       

4. Literary
works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of
the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized
entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of
the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the
text into a specialized format.

       

5. Computer programs
in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to
connect to a wireless telephone communication network, when
circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully
connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.

       

6.
Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound
recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by
technological protection measures that control access to lawfully
purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities
that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention
is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing,
investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.

   
 
 

These
exemptions will go into effect upon publication in the Federal Register
on November 27, 2006 and will remain in effect through October 27, 2009.

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