• A complete timeline of all activity on the DMCA, from its introduction to the signing by President Clinton.

• The DFC is still making many efforts to change the language in the DMCA, especialy with the many recent intellectual copyright controversies (Napster, etc.) still raging. Sections 1201 and 104 of the DMCA continue to be reviewed by the U.S. Copyright ofice, and the DFC continues to be involved:
  
  
  1. Read the DFC letter to the U.S. Copyright Office advocating some of these changes to Section 104.
     
     
  2. Read the comments of several national library associations on Section 104 and its effect on the "First Sale" doctrine.
     
     
  3. DFC Alert: Copyright owners get green light to roll with technological protection measures at consumer expense!

• Many of the issues that the DMCA dealt with were first introduced by the World International Property Organization (WIPO). Browse the DFC Archives for our past WIPO-related materials.

• As the DMCA was being introduced and debated in the Congress, it spawned a debate on the proper ways to protect databases from information piracy. As you can see from our Archives, this database legislation would serve as a model for the database legislation that the DFC is still battling today through the Database Data coalition.

• Various bills regarding digital copyright were considered in the House of Representatives and the Senate before the DMCA was finally signed into law. Those that the DFC have been involved with include:

1. S. 1146, the Digital Copyright Clarification and Technology Act of 1997. It was sponsored by Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) on September 3, 1997. This bill was rendered obsolete when the Digital Millenium Copyright Act was signed into law.
   
   
2. H.R. 3048, the Digital Era Copyright Enhancement Act. It was sponsored by Reps. Rick Boucher (D-VA, 9th) and Tom Campbell (R- CA, 15th) in November of 1997. This bill was rendered obsolete when the DMCA was signed into law.
   
   
3. S. 2180 , the On-line Copyright Liability Limitation Act. This bill was sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC, 6th) on July 17, 1997. After the introduction of H.R. 2281, this bill was re-introduced by Rep. Coble as S. 3209 on February 2, 1998 and was later included in the final version of the DMCA.
   
   
4. H.R. 2281, sponsored by Representative Coble on July 29, 1997, was eventually signed into law as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.