<body><div>Support IPWatchdog with an individual sponsorship: Click here“It’s not a statement by us regarding the underlying policy around the proposed research, it simply is not within the scope of 1201.” – Suzy Wilson, U.S. Copyright Office<figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0dS00x_0wMNTakB00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0dS00x_0wMNTakB00" width="350" height="209" ><figcaption>Library of Congress</figcaption></figure>The U.S. Copyright Office today issued its final rule adopting exemptions under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs) that control access to copyrighted works. The Office engages in such rulemaking every three years. This is the ninth triennial Section 1201 rulemaking since passage of the DMCA in 1998.Notably, the Office denied a request to add “an exemption for the purpose of conducting ‘trustworthiness’ research on AI systems.”In October 2023, the Office issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NRPM) intending to recommend renewal of all but one existing exemption. The Office also announced that it had received petitions for seven classes of newly proposed exemptions for which the agency engaged in three rounds of public comments.<h2>Proposed Exemptions Denied</h2>One proposed new exemption that the Office ultimately recommended against in the final rule was the subject of a petition filed by joint educators to exempt circumvention of TPMs on DVDs, Blu-ray discs and digitally transmitted video for use in online learning platforms for upskilling and retraining, such as Khan Academy or LinkedIn Learning. According to the final rule, the Office found the proposal lacked support for expanding the exemption to cover such for-profit entities. Opponents said the petitioners “failed to meet their evidentiary burden, including that the conduct at issue would be noninfringing.”A petition by Jonathan Weiss sought a Section 1201 exemption to allow circumvention of access controls on generative AI platforms to enable security research into inherent biases programmed into AI platforms. The proposed exemption would have also covered the sharing of research findings, methodologies and techniques for exposing and addressing bias in AI models. Weiss’ petition noted that inherent biases in generative AI models “have the potential to perpetuate or even exacerbate systemic issues related to race, gender, ethnicity, and other sensitive factors.” However, the Office ultimately recommended denying the proposal, explaining that the Register “acknowledges the importance of AI trustworthiness research as a policy matter and notes that Congress and other agencies may be best positioned to act on this emerging issue.”Suzy Wilson, General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights said on a press briefing today that the Office found the identification of what was causing the adverse effects were actually not TPMs but a number of rules that the software provider had set forth in terms of service or safety guidelines. Thus, an exemption would not actually solve the problem. “We looked at each of the alleged adverse effects and determined that in fact an exemption would not resolve or ameliorate the adverse effects being experienced or identified in the petition,” Wilson explained. “It’s not a statement by us regarding the underlying policy around the proposed research, it simply is not within the scope of 1201…but it may be a place where other agencies or congress may want to act.”The Office also denied proposals for new exemptions relating to revising the text of the exemption for excerpts of audiovisual works to incorporate language used in the fourth triennial section 1201 rulemaking and “[e]xpansion of the exemption for preservation of computer programs and video games, except with respect to clarifying the single-user limitation in the current computer program preservation exemption to reflect that preservation institutions can allow a copy of a computer program to be accessed by as many individuals as there are circumvented copies legally owned.”<h2>New Exemptions</h2>The Office recommended adopting or expanding exemptions in four total categories as set forth in the final rule:<ul><li>Class 3(a) and 3(b): Expansion of the exemption for audiovisual and literary works, for the purpose of text and data mining for scholarly research and teaching by allowing researchers affiliated with other nonprofit institutions of higher education to access corpora for independent research and by modifying the provisions concerning security measures and viewing the contents of copyrighted works within</li><li>a corpus.</li><li>Class 5: New exemption for computer programs that control retail-level commercial food preparation equipment for purposes of diagnosis, maintenance, and repair.18</li><li>Class 7: New Exemption for computer programs, for purposes of accessing, storing, and sharing operational data, including diagnostic and telematics data, of motorized land vehicles, marine vessels, and commercial and agricultural vehicles or vessels.</li></ul>With respect to the category 3(a) and 3(b) exemptions, the final rule explained that institutions can “provide outside researchers with credentials for security and authentication to use a corpus that is hosted on its servers” but cannot disseminate a copy of a corpus (or copyrighted works included therein) to outside researchers or give outside researchers the ability to download, make copies of, or distribute any copyrighted works.”As to class 5, the Register said “proponents sufficiently showed, by a preponderance of the evidence, adverse effects on the proposed noninfringing uses” of computer programs related to retail-level commercial food preparation but declined to extend the exemption to the broader category of software-enabled industrial devices. Wilson said today that the Office simply didn’t receive enough specific examples and evidence about where efforts to repair were being frustrated by TPMs. Furthermore, the opposing comments received indicated a concern that all industrial equipment was too broad of a class “without more specifics regarding adverse effects.”Finally, the Class 7 exemption was recommended because the Register determined that “the prohibition on circumvention adversely affects the ability of lawful owners and lessees, or those acting on their behalf, to access, store, and share operational and telematics data, which are likely to be noninfringing.” The rule further recommended that regulatory provisions “mirroring those within the Repair Exemption regarding the applicability of the exemption to other laws, separate subscription services, and unauthorized access to other copyrighted works” be adopted.According to a footnote in the final rule, the Office did not receive a renewal petition for the “exemption permitting circumvention of video games in the form of computer programs for the purpose of allowing an individual with a physical disability to use alternative software or hardware input methods.” All other exemptions received petitions for renewal and the Register recommended renewal for all of them.As part of the requirement under Section 1201(a)(1), the Copyright Office must consult with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) throughout the process. Asked by a member of the press today whether the Office sees the triennial rulemaking process as an efficient long term approach, Wilson said they have streamlined the process considerably over the years but “we do invite Congress to consider permanent exemptions.”The Librarian of Congress adopted the Register’s recommendations in full. The final rule becomes effective October 28, 2024.</div></body>

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Copyright Office Denies Proposed AI Security Research Exemption in Triennial Rulemaking Under DMCA

Support IPWatchdog with an individual sponsorship: Click here. “It’s not a statement by us regarding the underlying policy around the proposed research, it simply is not within the scope of 1201.” – Suzy Wilson, U.S. Copyright Office. The U.S. Copyright Office today issued its final rule adopting...