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 Pennsylvania, as in all states, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 is a federal statute that applies uniformly across the United States. The DMCA provides a legal framework for copyright protection in the digital environment. It offers safe harbor provisions to online service providers, shielding them from liability for copyright infringement by their users under certain conditions, provided they follow the notice-and-takedown procedure. This procedure allows copyright owners to notify service providers of infringing content to have it removed. Additionally, the DMCA protects copyright owners by criminalizing the act of circumventing digital rights management (DRM) technologies and access controls, such as encryption and password systems, that protect copyrighted works. It also prohibits providing false copyright management information or altering such information with the intent to facilitate copyright infringement or to mislead. These provisions are codified in the United States Code at 17 U.S.C. §§ 512, 1201-1205, 1301-1332, and 28 U.S.C. § 4001. As federal law, the DMCA preempts state law where there is a conflict, ensuring a consistent legal landscape for copyright issues related to the internet across the nation.