In 1998, Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which amended U.S. copyright law (The Copyright Act of 1976) to address important parts of the relationship between copyright and the internet. The three main updates to copyright law were:

• establishing protections for online service providers in certain situations if their users engage in copyright infringement, including by creating the notice-and-takedown system, which allows copyright owners to inform online service providers about infringing material so it can be taken down;

• encouraging copyright owners to give greater access to their works in digital formats by providing them with legal protections against unauthorized access to their works (for example, hacking passwords or circumventing encryption); and

• making it unlawful to provide false copyright management information (for example, names of authors and copyright owners, titles of works) or to remove or alter that type of information in certain circumstances.

The DMCA is in the United States Code (federal statutes) at 17 U.S.C. §§512, 1201-1205, 1301-1332; and 28 U.S.C. §4001.

In Ohio, as in all states, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 applies as federal law. The DMCA provides a framework for copyright protection in the digital environment. It establishes a safe harbor for online service providers, shielding them from liability for copyright infringement by their users under certain conditions, provided they implement a notice-and-takedown system. This system allows copyright owners to alert service providers of infringing content to have it removed. Additionally, the DMCA offers legal protections to copyright owners against unauthorized access to their works, such as circumventing encryption or password protections. It also makes it illegal to provide false copyright management information or to alter such information under specific circumstances. These provisions are designed to balance the interests of copyright owners with the need for the free flow of information and innovation on the internet. As federal law, the DMCA preempts state law and is uniformly applied across all states, including Ohio.