2003-05 Should the DMCA Prevail: Analysis of the Constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act

2003-05 Sergey G. Zaytsev \DMCA\University of Arizona\US Constitution http://serg.us/paper/dmca_thesis.htm Should the DMCA Prevail: Analysis of the Constitutionality of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act &ldquo;This paper tries to address the issue of whether the DMCA will withstand the critique toward it from the technology-oriented community, some legal counselors, as well as the general public in the light of constitutional scrutiny.&rdquo;  The 21st century has arrived and the way people deal with information has changed dramatically. Digital ways of creating, storing, and transferring information are now more readily available. Information in a digital form brings a lot of advantages to the consumer. Music Compact Disks (CDs) practically forced out analog vinyl disks and magnetic audiotapes, Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) are pushing out videotapes, and more and more books are available in digital form. It is reasonable to assume that some analog types of documents (copyrighted works) are living their last years and ready to become obsolete.

Probably the majority of the documents in the future will exist in a digital form. To deal with the new reality of an emerging future the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was enacted in 1998. This paper tries to address the issue of whether the DMCA will withstand the critique toward it from the technology-oriented community, some legal counselors, as well as the general public in the light of constitutional scrutiny.   