by Bradley M. Kuhn
on December 16, 2020
We at Conservancy spent much in the last week preparing our Long Comments
in our DMCA exemptions requests for this round.
When we announced these exemption filings, many of our Supporters asked
us to “back up and explain” what this whole process is
and why Conservancy participates. These are excellent questions and so we provide below a simple explanation of the
DMCA exemption process, why it exists, and why
FOSS-friendly organizations like us chose to participate in what is ultimately a flawed process.
The provisions of the DMCA were designed to support
DRM
with the power of civil (and in some cases, criminal) law. Media companies, seeing that digital