October 28, 1998
Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into U.S. law
President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on October 28, 1998 — criminalizing circumvention of DRMDigital rights management — technology restricting how users copy or play media and software. and creating safe harbors for online service providers.
What it was for
The DMCADigital Millennium Copyright Act — U.S. law on DRM circumvention and online copyright safe harbors. shaped how developers build media apps, security research, and takedown workflows. Section 1201 anti-circumvention rules affected jailbreaking debates; DMCADigital Millennium Copyright Act — U.S. law on DRM circumvention and online copyright safe harbors. takedown notices became routine for GitHubA platform for Git hosting, pull requests, and CI — the center of open-source collaboration., YouTube, and CDNs. EU equivalents followed in later copyright directives.
Why it's here
The DMCADigital Millennium Copyright Act — U.S. law on DRM circumvention and online copyright safe harbors. set the global template for copyright enforcement on the internet.
Why it mattered
Safe harbors and takedown processes became standard infrastructure for every UGC platform.
What it solved
Copyright owners had no clear legal path to remove infringing material online without suing every host.
Media
- ImageDigital Millennium Copyright Act
U.S. Government, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Mozilla source code open-sourcedMarch 31, 1998