The DMCA Dialectic : Towards Constructive Criticism

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act restricts technology that serves a certain function at a time when some overlapping technology serves useful functions; as such, the law is problematic. Hard cases have arisen and will continue to arise. But critiques of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions have had marginal impact. This paper reconsiders arguments for and against the DMCA, drawing attention to two problems that are often neglected by critics, both the failure of traditional copyright enforcement in a new technological environment, and consumer's long-run interest in viable for-pay content markets