Success in the DMCA triennial

October 31, 2024

Director of Compliance, Denver Gingerich, speaking before the Library of Congress

Software Freedom Conservancy is proud to announce its successful work in the latest triennial DMCA exemption process to stand up for the rights of FOSS developers. This week, the Copyright Office granted all of the exemptions we requested, according to the final rule Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies. Due to these rulings, the LoC renewed the DMCA exemptions SFC established for the jailbreaking of routers and smart TVs, and for investigating copyleft compliance. Our executive director, Karen Sandler, also successfully participated in a coalition of medical device researchers in a request to renew the exemption for medical devices. SFC's Director of Compliance, Denver Gingerich, also participated and gave testimony during the hearings (for Computer Programs—Repair, led by iFixit and discussed below) when the LoC was looking for expert opinion.

In their rule making, the Librarian of Congress fully summarized our submission regarding license investigations, concluding that we "demonstrated personal knowledge and experience regarding the exemption."

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