EFF Challenges 'Onerous' DMCA Copyright Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia should block “onerous copyright rules that violate the First Amendment and criminalize certain speech,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in a filing last week. EFF wants to reverse a district court decision in Green v. DOJ, in which EFF challenged anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Those measures prevent researchers, educators and others from “creating and sharing” their work. EFF filed its 2016 lawsuit on behalf of researcher Matthew Green and technologist Andrew Huang, whose projects could “run afoul” of the DMCA’s “anti-speech provisions,” EFF said. Section 1201 makes it illegal to work around software restricting “access to lawfully-purchased copyrighted material,” like films, songs and computer code, EFF said. Their projects are “highly beneficial” to the public and “perfectly legal” outside the scope of the DMCA, the organization said.