[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 37, Volume 1]
[Revised as of July 1, 2008]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 37CFR201.40]

[Page 543-544]
 
              TITLE 37--PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, AND COPYRIGHTS
 
                                CONGRESS
 
PART 201_GENERAL PROVISIONS--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 201.40  Exemption to prohibition against circumvention.

    (a) General. This section prescribes the classes of copyrighted 
works for which the Librarian of Congress has determined, pursuant to 17 
U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(C) and (D), that noninfringing uses by persons who are 
users of such works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected. The 
prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control 
access to copyrighted works set forth in 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(A) shall 
not apply to such users of the prescribed classes of copyrighted works.
    (b) Classes of copyrighted works. Pursuant to the authority set 
forth in 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(C) and (D), and upon the recommendation of 
the Register of Copyrights, the Librarian has determined that during the 
period from November 27, 2006 through October 27, 2009, the prohibition 
against circumvention of technological measures that effectively control 
access to copyrighted works set forth in 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(A) shall 
not apply to persons who engage in noninfringing uses of the following 
six classes of copyrighted works:
    (1) Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a 
college or university's film or media studies department, when 
circumvention is accomplished for the purpose of making compilations of 
portions of those works for educational use in the classroom by media 
studies or film professors.
    (2) Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that 
have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as 
a condition of access, when circumvention is accomplished for the 
purpose of preservation or archival reproduction of published digital 
works by a library or archive. A format shall be considered obsolete if 
the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in 
that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably 
available in the commercial marketplace.
    (3) Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due 
to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete. A dongle shall be 
considered obsolete if it is no longer manufactured or if a replacement 
or repair is no longer reasonably available in the commercial 
marketplace.
    (4) Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing 
ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made 
available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent 
the enabling either of the book's read-aloud function or of screen 
readers that render the text into a specialized format.
    (5) Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless 
telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication 
network,

[[Page 544]]

when circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of lawfully 
connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.
    (6) Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those 
sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by 
technological protection measures that control access to lawfully 
purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities 
that compromise the security of personal computers, when circumvention 
is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing, 
investigating, or correcting such security flaws or vulnerabilities.
    (c) Definition. ``Specialized format,'' ``digital text'' and 
``authorized entities'' shall have the same meaning as in 17 U.S.C. 121.

[65 FR 64574, Oct. 27, 2000, as amended at 68 FR 62018, Oct. 31, 2003; 
71 FR 68479, Nov. 27, 2006]