[SIGCIS-Members] Help expand access to historical software

[Kevin Driscoll]

Hello SIGCIS,

I'm writing on behalf of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School and the
Software Preservation Network (SPN) to request your help seeking an
exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that will expand
off-site, on-line access to historical software from libraries and
archives.

A key outcome of this work will be to allow researchers to run old software
in a browser or emulator without the need to physically travel to the
collection.

To realize this goal, the Cyberlaw Clinic is seeking stories from SIGCIS
members about the value of this sort of off-site access for our research
and teaching.

For more details on the proposed exemption, see this one-page explainer:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rrqwg9qDHgT9PYixmgLM64foCrpY4bM/view?usp=sharing

Instructions for participation are included below. I hope that you will
consider sharing your stories and experiences. The potential benefit to
future scholars is tremendous.

Sincerely,

Kevin Driscoll
U of Virginia

-- 

Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic is working with the Software
Preservation Network to win new copyright regulations that would expand
access to software in library collections. Specifically, we are asking the
Copyright Office to expand exemptions relating to §1201 of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). You can read more about how the DMCA
affects software here
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wE6s8cpJoaKJNJ9dJYw33nx4y-AFO5iTOo_ef71Sfo4/edit?pli=1>
and
learn about the rules already in place from this explainer
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-rrqwg9qDHgT9PYixmgLM64foCrpY4bM/view?usp=sharing>
.



*We want your feedback about copyright and software access issues! *In
2018, our clinic successfully petitioned for a DMCA exemption that permits
DRM circumvention and access “on the premises” of archives, libraries, and
museums. This year, we are trying to expand this language so that archives,
libraries, and museums can also facilitate *off-site* access to DRM
protected programs.



The stories and experiences of your community are critical to the success
of our proposal. To this end, we need your help. Given the nature of SIGCIS
members' work, we wanted to reach out to ask if you have been facing issues
with off-site access to software recently and would be interested in a
broader exemption.  If that is the case, we'd love to hear from you.


Our team is happy to record your story on the phone, via email -- whatever
is easiest for you. If you are interested in contributing to this project
via email, please reach out via email to ateitler.jd22 at hlsclinics.org with
responses to the below survey. We look forward to (hopefully) hearing from
you soon!



***

*Experiential Survey*

Name:

Institution (if applicable):

Email Address:

Software titles affected:

Is this software still commercially available?

How do off-site restrictions prevent or discourage
preservation/teaching/research?

How has your work been impacted by these regulations?

Has COVID impacted your access to materials?

Is there any additional information you would like to provide? (e.g.
relevant links, screenshots, additional information about the software,
other institutions you know of that have been similarly restricted, etc.)
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