LCA and MLA provide Comments on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems

On December 1, 2005, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA) and the Music Library Association (MLA) submitted comments on exceptions that the Library of Congress should grant pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)(C), pursuant to the Notice of Inquiry (NOI) published by the Copyright Office. LCA and MLA are pleased to observe that in the NOI, the Office seems to have backed away from rigid application of the “substantial adverse impact” standard articulated in the previous rulemakings. Moreover, the Office has qualified the standard for actual harm from always requiring a showing of “actual instances of verifiable problems” to “generally” requiring such a showing. Nonetheless, the Office continues to interpret the “likely” adverse effects standard as “require[ing] proof that adverse effects are more likely than not to occur.”

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