Comments Regarding a Proposed Exemption Under U.S.C. Section 1201

Abstract

In its Class 5 petition, the Library Copyright Alliance (“LCA”) requested an exemption to permit libraries, archives, and museums to circumvent the technological protections measures on DVDs and Blu-ray discs for the preservation of motion pictures stored on those media. LCA took great care to bifurcate its petition. It stated that the discussion in its Class 5 long comments focused on an exemption for on-premises uses of the preserved copies, as in 17 U.S.C. §§ 108(b) and (c) and the existing video game and software preservation exemptions. It noted, however, that the petitions for Proposed Classes 14a and 14b sought expansion of the videogame and software exemptions to off-premises uses. LCA requested that if the Register were to recommend the granting of the petitions for Proposed Classes 14a and 14b, the motion picture preservation exemption should also be expanded to include off-premises uses, particularly for educational uses.