Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Subject : Governance

Context : Recently, the Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology was locked out of his Twitter account allegedly over a notice received for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Concept :

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

• It is a 1998 law passed in the US.
• It is among the world’s first laws recognising intellectual property on the internet.
• It oversees the implementation of the two treaties signed and agreed upon by member nations of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in 1996.
• The two treaties are the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.
• It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works.

Significance of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

• The treaties require member nations to provide in their respective jurisdictions, protection to intellectual property that may have been created by citizens of different nations who are also co-signatories to the treaty.
• The protection, accorded by each member state, must not be any less in any way than the one being given to a domestic copyright holder.
• It obligates that signatories to the treaty ensure ways to prevent circumvention of the technical measures used to protect copyrighted work.
• It also provides the necessary international legal protection to digital content.