Success in the DMCA triennial

Thu Oct 31 21:10:39 UTC 2024

		Success in the DMCA triennial

URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2024/oct/31/success-in-2024-dmca-exemptions/

Social media: 
  https://social.sfconservancy.org/notice/AnZr3wA9iwUwcNqKTQ
  https://x.com/conservancy/status/1852094626213265560

Software Freedom Conservancy is proud to announce its successful work in
the latest triennial DMCA exemption process to stand up for the rights
of FOSS developers. This week, the Copyright Office granted all of the
exemptions we requested, according to the final rule Exemption to
Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access
Control Technologies [0]. Due to these rulings, the LoC renewed the DMCA
exemptions SFC established for the jailbreaking of routers and smart
TVs, and for investigating copyleft compliance. Our executive director,
Karen Sandler, also successfully participated in a coalition of medical
device researchers in a request to renew the exemption for medical
devices. SFC's Director of Compliance, Denver Gingerich, also
participated and gave testimony during the hearings [1] (for Computer
Programs—Repair, led by iFixit and discussed below) when the LoC was
looking for expert opinion.

In their rule making, the Librarian of Congress fully summarized our
submission regarding license investigations, concluding that we
"demonstrated personal knowledge and experience regarding the
exemption." Jailbreaking of routers + smart TVs

This is technically two separate exemptions, one for routing equipment
and one for smart TVs, but the Copyright office referred to them
together in their ruling, showing that we are making progress in
advocating for the critical need for consumers to retain control of
their own equipment across different types of devices. The exemptions
allow the so called jailbreaking of these devices for alternative
firmware that extends the lifetime of the devices as well as expands
software capabilities. We are especially happy to receive this exemption
for our member project OpenWrt [2], a critically important piece of
software. Another exemption was for "smart televisions" which "includes
both internet-enabled televisions, as well as devices that are
physically separate from a television and whose primary purpose is to
run software applications". This is great news for streaming devices
which have alternative firmwares and also the whole swath of free
software that can run on such devices. Protecting consumers from
"planned obsolescence" by extending the lifetime of their devices, as
well as protecting our freedoms by allowing us to run our own software
on the devices. License investigation

We're also proud of the exemption for circumvention of technological
measures for purposes of investigating and confirming violations of FOSS
license. To see the Library of Congress recognize the importance of
protecting software licensing shows just how far we've come in terms of
FOSS advocacy. This explicitly allows license investigation to continue,
and we at Software Freedom Conservancy hope that others will take up the
cause of holding device manufacturers accountable to their use of
copyleft and other FOSS licensed software so that people can exercise
their software freedom rights. This ruling, regrettably, continues to
disallow such investigation into video game consoles, but we believe
that, with persistence, the LoC will come to see that these general
purpose computers that happen to play video games, also require the same
kind of exemptions. This renewed exemption is vitally important to the
future of free software, as without understanding what software is
running on our devices, we are unable to guarantee that licensing terms
are met, that newcomers are informed that they have rights with respect
to their software and our freedoms for using free software are
preserved. Medical devices

Our Executive Director Karen Sandler, along with Hugo Campos and Jay
Radcliffe, filed for DMCA exemptions to medical devices which was
submitted and defended by the USC Gould School of Law. The request [3]
was signed by Karen, and cited the difficulty she had accessing the
information on her defibrillator during 2023 [4]. This exemption
dovetails with requests made my small companies seeking to gain the
right to repair medical equipment during this triennial process, which
were also successful. Onwards

Seeing the Librarian of Congress continue to grant our exemptions shows
that the work we are doing is being received well by governmental
entities. Without such advocacy, the power corporations have over our
technology would be reducing innovation, harming our freedom, and
stifling our voices. The work that SFC does in protecting and defending
digital rights is expansive and this policy work is just one way that we
are dedicated to defending our rights.

We would also like to point out that iFixit filed an exemption for
"Computer Programs—Repair of Motorized Land Vehicles, Marine Vessels, or
Mechanized Agricultural, Vehicles or Vessels" which helps protect the
software right to repair for vehicles including farm equipment like
tractors. In an increasingly software driven world, the importance of
protecting all our technology incredibly vital. Our relationship with
iFixit and various right to repair organizations has shown how important
this kind of intersectional approach to activism and advocacy is.

Many thanks for our General Counsel, Rick Sanders, who drafted and
shepherded these filings.

[0] https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/28/2024-24563/exemption-to-prohibition-on-circumvention-of-copyright-protection-systems-for-access-control
[1] https://www.copyright.gov/1201/2024/hearings.html
[2] https://openwrt.org/
[3] https://www.copyright.gov/1201/2024/petitions/renewal/Renewal%20Pet.%20-%20Medical%20Device%20Data%20-%20Coalition%20of%20Medical%20Device%20Patients%20and%20Researchers.pdf
[4] https://www.kuleuven.be/events/en/lecture-karen-sandler-softwarerights