Ask HN: Why has DMCA Circumvention Prohibition not been repealed?
Zoe Lofgren has, for the last decade, regularly led Congressional work to mitigate the damage of DMCA 1201. (See this one from a few years back <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2017&#x2F;02&#x2F;fair-use-consumer-protection" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;deeplinks&#x2F;2017&#x2F;02&#x2F;fair-use-consumer-prot...</a> ). EFF currently has a project, Apollo 1201, led by Cory Doctorow, to seek legal challenges to the law.<p>It can be hard, because 1201 is an implementation of an international treaty, the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty, which requires language on anti-circumvention technology. The Treaty was passed after language similar to 1201 failed to get traction in the US Congress before &#x27;96. Treaties, in theory, trump domestic legislation, in that the US has made a commitment to honor the treaty, so the law is meant to reflect that commitment.<p>However, the treaty itself only specifies that &quot;Contracting Parties shall provide adequate legal protection and effective legal remedies against the circumvention of effective technological measures that are used by authors in connection with the exercise of their rights under this Treaty or the Berne Convention and that restrict acts, in respect of their works, which are not authorized by the authors concerned or permitted by law.&quot;; DMCA 1201 goes much further than that. So that we can imagine a fix to the law that returns the US to a more balanced implementation of this language.<p>However! The United States has <i>also</i> entered into a number of bilateral treaties with other countries, requiring them to also implement DMCA 1201 language, and many states have just cut-and-pasted the 1201 language as part of their compliance with the Copyright Treaty. The EU has similar requirements on its member nations: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Anti-circumvention" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Anti-circumvention</a><p>You might want to read some of EFF&#x27;s historic reports on the development of the law: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;wp&#x2F;unintended-consequences-under-dmca&#x2F;archive" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.eff.org&#x2F;wp&#x2F;unintended-consequences-under-dmca&#x2F;ar...</a><p>Politically, there&#x27;s been a concern for a number of years that re-opening the DMCA might lead to worse outcomes: ironically, the strongest advocates for revisiting or repealing the DMCA has come from the rightsholders, who feel they have an opportunity (given the tech backlash) to draft an even more draconian law. So I think that opponents of DMCA 1201 have mostly fallen back to advocating for stronger exceptions under the triennial copyright office review of the law, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techdirt.com&#x2F;tag&#x2F;triennial-review&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techdirt.com&#x2F;tag&#x2F;triennial-review&#x2F;</a> where individuals and companies can push for specific exceptions to the blanket ban. This is where you&#x27;ll have seen legal permission for filmmakers, videogame archivists, etc.