Technical Protection Measures: Balancing Act and Shield in Copyright Regime

Abstract

The importance of balancing interests in the light of technological advancement is manifest in Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) legislative history. Congress attempted to balance competing interests and endeavored to specify with as much clarity as possible, how the rights against anti –circumvention would be qualified to maintain the balance between the interests of content creators’ and information users. The interests that the DMCA set out to balance resulted in development of shields (defensive devices to protect legal rights) by these interest to enhance their position in the copyright regime. The advent of the digital age changed the protection and enforcement landscape of copyrights not just in the United States but globally. This paper will principally focus on the United States attempt to address the challenges of copyright protection in the digital technology age. In the United States the enactment of the DMCA was a deliberate attempt to address the perceived inadequacies of the pre-existing Copyright Act. The Copyright Act has been embedded with principles that balance the rights of the copyright owner against the public’s interest in having appropriate access to innovative works. The interest of content creators and information users had to be balanced. The objective of copyright as expressed in the Constitution demanded that the interest of copyright owners and users be taken into consideration in the DMCA environment. The courts are in the forefront of balancing these interests. We will review how the courts have attempted to achieve a balance.