Exporting DMCA Lockouts

My goal here is limited. I do not attack the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA as wholly misguided; the desire to prevent widespread piracy of copyrighted works is understandable. At the same time, I do not mean to suggest that the critique I offer here is the sum of the adverse consequences of that statute, including for speech and education. My argument is limited to the threat posed by the export of the DMCA anti-circumvention rules, which do not explicitly guard against the anti-competitive use of those rules.Part I briefly sketches the difficulties created domestically by a DMCA inattentive to concerns over competition.

Part II describes how these legal problems are being exported to our trading partners through free trade agreements.