What is Sec. 1201?

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was passed in 1998 as an attempt to prevent piracy at the dawn of the internet. In the 28 years since, it has been a hotbed of controversy.

When it comes to the erosion of ownership in the digital economy, Section 1201 of the DMCA reigns supreme. The law prevents, “circumvent[ion] of a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.” In plain english, that means that you can’t bypass a digital lock (think encryption or credentialed access) that stands between you and a copyrighted work, such as a movie, a song, or source code.

It doesn’t matter if you have no plans to illegally distribute the copyrighted work. Simply bypassing the digital lock—even to repair your device or restore lost functionality—is enough to trigger this law and potentially make you a copyright criminal.

This has shifted control of devices and content from you, the owner, to the company you bought your stuff from. It has enabled these companies to monopolize repair, turn everything into a subscription, put hardware features behind paywalls, and collect massive amounts of your data, all with little recourse for the consumer.

Thanks to efforts of organizations including EFF, iFixit, and Public Knowledge, the Right to Repair movement has won exemptions to Sec. 1201 for repair of an increasing number of devices. Those exemptions, plus exemptions for cybersecurity research and the purpose of interoperability, protect the efforts of our bounty winners to make repairs to or firmware cracks on their own devices.

But not everyone can hack their devices to fix them. And the issue with going beyond someone’s own device comes from part (b) of Sec. 1201. Known as anti-trafficking provision, it states that “No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service device, component, or part thereof that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof.”

That means that any good that comes from an individual coder who revives a smart thermostat or creates an alternative repair software for farmers to fix their tractors is severely limited. If either chooses to make their tool available to the public for free or on the open market, they risk a Sec. 1201 lawsuit and face penalties of up to five years in federal prison and $500,000 in fines per user of their tool.

There is no reason that repair should represent a copyright crime, just as there is no reason that holding a copyright should grant a manufacturer the authority to lock out independent repair. But the law as it currently stands is preventing innovators from creating comprehensive repair tools for tractors, powered wheelchairs, even iPhones.

That needs to change. FULU advocates for commonsense updates to the DMCA ensure consumers have the freedom to fix their devices on their own or with the independent technician of their choosing. We work to draw attention to the ways that manufacturers use digital locks to infringe upon our ownership rights. Join us in the push to make sure you can own your sh*t.