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DMCA Filmmakers Exemption Expanded

By Scott Graham
December 01, 2018

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions aren't just for documentary filmmakers anymore. The U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress has broadened a DMCA exemption to now allow more filmmakers to circumvent anti-copying technology and rip short video clips for purposes of commentary and criticism.

The DMCA criminalizes the hacking of copyrighted books, movies, video games and computer software. But every three years the Copyright Office updates a list of exemptions for legitimate non-infringing uses, such as “jailbreaking” an iPhone to add third-party software.

“This is huge for the independent film industry,” said Michael Donaldson, an attorney who argued for expanding the filmmaker exemption before the Copyright Office, in a written statement. “The use of fair use material by narrative filmmakers has exponentially increased to the point where expanding the exemption to fiction films was absolutely necessary.”

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