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 South Carolina, 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 that addresses the relationship between copyright and the internet. Key provisions include a safe harbor for online service providers, which protects them from liability for copyright infringement by their users under certain conditions, as long as they comply with the notice-and-takedown procedure. This procedure allows copyright owners to notify service providers of infringing material to have it removed. Additionally, the DMCA offers legal protections to copyright owners against unauthorized access to their digital works, such as circumventing encryption or password protections. It also prohibits providing false copyright management information or altering such information under specific circumstances. These regulations 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, and thus, the provisions of the DMCA are fully applicable and enforceable in South Carolina.