Abstract
Recently, copyright owners had tried implementing various technological protecting measures to prevent their works from reproducing and distributing among the digital network without their authorization. But these technology protecting measures could hardly protect their works due to user’s circumvention. Therefore, many countries have begun their anti-circumvention provision to protect copyright infringement further, and the United States had taken the lead. Section 1201 of The “Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998” (DMCA) strictly prohibits others from circumventing technological protecting measures to access the copyrighted works, and from helping such circumvention to access or duplicate the copyrighted works. But criticisms argue that such strict prohibitions will adversely affect public interests and will ultimately damage the spirit of copyright law – to promote the progress of science and useful arts. Since recently our administrative department have started drafting DMCA-like anti-circumvention provision, it’s important to realize it’s critical impact on public interests. This thesis will introduce the anti-circumvention provision of DMCA and some crucial rulings of U.S. courts in detail. Through such introduction and my personal point of view, this thesis summarize some adverse impact of the anti-circumvention provision of DMCA. In order to achieve the goal of the copyright law, our anti-circumvention legislation should avoid overprotecting copyright owners at the expense of public access and use of the information.