Technology prohibiting copying by VCRs, etc.

Section 1201(k) of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act contains a series of complex provisions that require manufacturers and importers of a variety of VCRs to install, within 18 months of the Act's passage, "automatic gain control copy control technology" or "colorstripe copy control technology" which will prevent consumers from making private copies of pay-per-view, video on demand, and certain other transmissions of audiovisual works (thus effectively overruling in part the Sony Betamax case on technological grounds). Does anyone have more information on how these technologies operate and whether they can be used to prevent consumers from taping "off the air" (something Congress apparently does not want to restrict)? The statute merely states in section 1201(k)(4)(E) that these terms have "the meanings that are commonly understood in the consumer electronics and motion picture industries as of the date of the enactment of this chapter."

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Laurence R. Helfer
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School
919 S. Albany Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Tel:  (213) 736-1467
Fax: (213) 380-3769
E-mail:  Larry.Helfer[_at_]lls.edu