United StatesDigital Millennium Copyright Act, anti-circumvention provisions
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In force since 28 October 1998.
A computer misuse rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 29 August 2026.
What it requires
- Do not circumvent a technological measure that controls access to a copyrighted work in order to collect it.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Section 1201 prohibits circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a copyrighted work. It functions as an escalation point rather than a scraping-specific rule: it is invoked once a target has put up a technical access barrier and a collector defeats it, the same fact pattern that also triggers Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and state computer-misuse exposure once notice and continued access or circumvention are shown, as in Facebook v. Power Ventures.
Section 1201 was added by title I of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Pub. L. 105-304, approved October 28, 1998; the anti-circumvention prohibition in subsection (a)(1)(A) itself carried a built-in two-year delayed effective date, so it did not bind conduct until October 28, 2000, the same window in which the Librarian of Congress ran the first rulemaking under subsection (a)(1)(C) to identify exempt classes of works.
When LexLint raises it
crawls_web
Read the law
official text, Office of the Law Revision Counsel (uscode.house.gov)
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.