New Rules for a New Decade: Improving the Copyright Office's Anti-Circumvention Rulemakings

Abstract

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act tasked the Copyright Office with conducting a triennial rulemaking to grant exemptions to a ban on circumventing access controls on copyrighted works, and five rulemakings have been conducted since the 1998 passage of the Act. Drawing on a decade of experience with the rulemaking process, this Note explores lessons learned from the most recent round and suggests practices the Copyright Office could adopt to make the rulemaking more efficient and more closely aligned with Congress’s intent.