As provided by law, the Library of Congress is tasked with reviewing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) every 3 years and they can open exemptions that keep the Act more fair for “fair use”, based on changing times and technology. Today, a number of exemptions were opened, among which they have made it “legal” to root or jail-break a digital device, in order to load app not approved by the device vendor or carrier. It will still void your warranty, but that is another matter.
Review by the Electronic Frontier Foundation
The advocacy group EFF has been lobbying for these changes for some time due to the overly broad language used previously in the DMCA legislation, which seemingly requires an ongoing list of “exceptions” for so-called fair use activities in order to stay current with the rapidly-changing technology of the Internet era.
“The Copyright Office and Librarian of Congress have taken three important steps today to mitigate some of the harms caused by the DMCA,” said Jennifer Granick, EFF’s civil liberties director, in regard to today’s changes. “We are thrilled to have helped free jailbreakers, unlockers and vidders from this law’s overbroad reach.” (We believe she means “video creators” there – “vidders” is a new one for us, too.)
Specifically, today’s exemptions include the following:
- Permission for cell phone owners to break access controls on their phones in order to switch wireless carriers or “jailbreak” their device
- Permission to break technical protections on video games to investigate or correct security flaws
- Permission for college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break copy-protection measures on DVDs so they can embed clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos
- Permission for computer owners to bypass the need for external security devices called dongles if the dongle no longer works and cannot be replaced