Proposed Class 9: Literary works distributed electronically – assistive technologies
That one comes courtesy of a petition submitted by the American Federation for the Blind.This proposed class would allow circumvention of access controls on lawfully made and acquired literary works distributed electronically for purposes of accessibility for persons who are print disabled. This exemption has been requested for literary works distributed electronically, including e-books, digital textbooks, and PDF articles.
Proposed Class 7: Audiovisual works – derivative uses – noncommercial remix videos
There are two classes for automobile software. The first class has to do with your mechanic being able to access said software for repair purposes (currently illegal!), and the second is safety-related:This proposed class would allow circumvention of access controls on lawfully made and acquired audiovisual works for the sole purpose of extracting clips for inclusion in noncommercial videos that do not infringe copyright. This exemption has been requested for audiovisual material made available on DVDs protected by CSS, Blu-ray discs protected by AACS,and TPM-protected online distribution services.
Proposed Class 22: Vehicle software – security and safety research
This proposed class would allow circumvention of TPMs protecting computer programs that control the functioning of a motorized land vehicle for the purpose of researching the security or safety of such vehicles. Under the exemption as proposed, circumvention would be allowed when undertaken by or on behalf of the lawful owner of the vehicle.
Proposed Class 23: Abandoned software – video games requiring server communication
And, of course, pacemakers (etc). Class 27 is especially dark:This proposed class would allow circumvention of TPMs on lawfully acquired video games consisting of communication with a developer-operated server for the purpose of either authentication or to enable multiplayer matchmaking, where developer support for those server communications has ended. This exception would not apply to video games whose audiovisual content is primarily stored on the developer's server, such as massive multiplayer online role-playing games.
Proposed Class 27: Software – networked medical devices
Most of the rest of the classes, primarily involving exemption requests from individuals rather than organizations, have to do with jailbreaking and unlocking various sorts of devices.All of these seem pretty reasonable. Will the Copyright Office see it the same way?Don't count on it. As Pamela Samuelson, co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, writes in the Communications of the ACM, "If the past is any predictor of the future, chances are quite high the Copyright Office will eventually deny the overwhelming majority of the requested anti-circumvention exceptions, no matter how harmless they might seem.""Congress should have adopted narrower anti-circumvention rules in the first place," Samuelson concludes. "Only circumventions that facilitate copyright infringement should be illegal. This would obviate the need for a triennial review process, and make reverse engineering of digital works far less risky than it is today."The proposed class would allow circumvention of TPMs protecting computer programs in medical devices designed for attachment to or implantation in patients and in their corresponding monitoring devices, as well as the outputs generated through those programs. As proposed, the exemption would be limited to cases where circumvention is at the direction of a patient seeking access to information generated by his or her own device, or at the direction of those conducting research into the safety, security, and effectiveness of such devices. The proposal would cover devices such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, insulin pumps, and continuous glucose monitors.