The Library of Congress made several rulings today that reinforce the rights of people who experiment with software and hardware.
The rulings define exceptions the the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which includes prohibitions against circumventing software designed to lock particular content or software so they can’t be copied or modified by users. These particular exceptions were requested by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for digital civil liberties.
Perhaps most significantly, the Library of Congress ruled that users can “jailbreak” their iPhones–allowing the phone to run software that hasn’t been approved by Apple. Another ruling protects consumers’ right to unlock their phones so that they can operate on a network other than that of the carrier who originally sold the device. The third ruling protected the rights of artists who circumvent anti-pirating software in order to extract samples from DVDs for use in remixes. All three of these cases were deemed examples of fair use.
Don’t settle for half the story.
Get paywall-free access to technology news for the here and now.
