The Digital Millennium Copyright Act: Key Issues for Serialists

Abstract The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is an extremely complex piece of legislation that makes major changes to U.S. Copyright Law, specifically in the digital networked environment. Many legal and practical issues are addressed in this legislation that have an enormous impact on the library community. This session will outline the key issues for libraries and alert serialists to the issues that directly or indirectly affect their work. Whether we are concerned with access, delivery, preservation, or archiving, the DMCA affects what we do on a daily basis. In the near future, as the law is being applied and tested in court, libraries must actively identify its impact on their mission and goals, and work to assure proper protection under the law.