CO Sets 7 April Hearings on DMCA Section 1201 TPM Ban Exemptions

The Copyright Office set seven April hearings in Washington and Los Angeles on possible exemptions to Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 1201’s ban on circumvention of technological protection measures as part of the office’s triennial review process for the statute, which began in July (see 1706300066). Civil liberties groups, computer scientists and library and tech associations seeking to renew exemptions for device jailbreaking, security research, e-books and other device software (see 1708090071). The Library of Congress granted 10 CO-recommended exemptions to 1201 in 2015 at the conclusion of the last triennial, including expansions of existing device unlocking and jailbreaking exemptions (see 1510270056). The CO recommended last year Congress shouldn’t use legislation to significantly revamp the statute but said legislators could expand the granting of permanent exemptions and improve the triennial process (see 1706220014). The Washington hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 10-13, in the Mumford Room of the LOC’s James Madison Building, the office said in Friday’s Federal Register. The Los Angeles hearings will be 9 a.m.-5 p.m., April 23-25, in UCLA School of Law, Room 1314. Requests are due before Feb. 22.