Federal Circuit: No New Right Under DMCA

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [DMCA_Discuss]Federal Circuit: DMCA does not create a
new property right forcopyright owners
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 11:23:22 +0400
From: Vladimir Katalov <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Federal Circuit: DMCA does not create a new property right for
copyright owners
Aug 31, 2004

http://patentlaw.typepad.com/patent/2004/08/federal_circuit_12.html

Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Technologies (Fed. Cir. 2004):
http://fedcir.gov/opinions/04-1118.doc

In a well reasoned opinion, the Federal Circuit (GAJARSA)
affirmed a district court's dismissal of a suit arising under
anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act (DMCA).

  The DMCA does not create a new property right for copyright
owners.
  Nor, for that matter, does it divest the public of the property
  rights that the Copyright Act has long granted to the public.
The
  anticircumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the DMCA
create
  new grounds of liability. A copyright owner seeking to impose
  liability on an accused circumventor must demonstrate a
reasonable
  relationship between the circumvention at issue and a use
relating
  to a property right for which the Copyright Act permits the
  copyright owner to withhold authorization-as well as notice
that
  authorization was withheld. A copyright owner seeking to impose
  liability on an accused trafficker must demonstrate that the
  trafficker's device enables either copyright infringement or a
  prohibited circumvention. Here, the District Court correctly
ruled
  that Chamberlain pled no connection between unauthorized use of
its
  copyrighted software and Skylink's accused transmitter. This
  connection is critical to sustaining a cause of action under
the
  DMCA. We therefore affirm the District Court's summary judgment
in
  favor of Skylink.

This case involved electronic garage door technology with a
"rolling code" to encrypt signals transmitted signals. Skylink
distributes a universal remote that can decode the encrypted
rolling code. In an attempt to control the aftermarket in remote
control units, Chamberlain sued.

The court's basic premise is that an element of a DMCA cause of
action is an underlying copyright violation -- without such a
violation, there can be no remedy.

_______________________________________________

USC Title 17 Sec. 107. - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair
use 

This material is distributed to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.

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