Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998

The protection of intellectual property rights from attack by cybercriminals is for many modern-day businesses as important as dealing with crack attacks on computer networks.

Enacted in October 1998, the DMCA was intended to implement under United States law certain worldwide copyright laws to cope with emerging digital technologies by providing protection against the disabling or by-passing of technical measures designed to protect copyright. The DMCA sanctions apply to anyone who attempts to impair or disable an encryption device protecting a copyrighted work, typically using the Internet.

A copy of the DMCA can be found at the Web page http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/ dmca.pdf.

See Also: Attack; Copyright Law; Hacker Quarterly Magazine (a.k.a. 2600); Intellectual Property (IP); Infringing Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright, Internet; Network.