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Copyright in the Digital Age
Congress
amended U.S. copyright law in 1998 with the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act. The law makes the U.S. compliant with international
treaties and also prohibits circumvention of digital rights
management technology. The digital medium, along with the
distributive nature of the Web, has changed the way users interact
with material. Technology has made copying and distribution easier.
In response to this technology, DMCA was enacted.
Some argue that the law makes original exceptions such as Fair Use and First Sale Doctrine obsolete, and in response, have provided licensing tools that specify for the author or creator what a user can do with the work
Science Commons addresses the traditional, paper-based practice of scholarly authors assigning all copyrights to a journal publisher. Transferring all rights limits the ways authors can reuse their work in teaching, future compilations, web posting, etc. By amending the traditional agreement, authors can retain their copyrights and use their own work without having to ask for permission from a publisher.
