Tilting Copyright Balance: Two Sections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Progress of Science and Useful Arts

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 was the latest substantial revision of U. S. Copyright Law. Implemented largely as a response to the Internet, the DMCA has become a central target in a struggle over the power of copyright law--a law the first Congress designed in 1790 in keeping with the language of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States to promote the "Progress of Science and the useful Arts." But how is that progress best assured? Increasingly over the years, the promotion of science and useful arts has become a single claim encompassing two diametrically opposed notions, those that guarantee copyright ownership, and those that explicitly limit the scope and power of that ownership. It is the relative power of those countervailing efforts that assures either the success or failure of the law's purpose. Too little power and creative minds are not given incentive to create. Too much power and the public is restricted from harvesting--and building upon--the knowledge of others.

The DMCA provided a safeguard to protect copyright owners from Internet pirates. But when adding the weight of additional power to copyright owners, did the DCMA tilt the scale away from the progress of science and useful arts? This thesis examines two particular provisions of the DMCA, Section 1201, "Circumvention of copyright protection systems, Section 512, "Limitations on liability relating to material online." These provisions are examined in light of the purpose of copyright law as granted by the Constitution of the United States.