Fair-use DMCA exemption!

At the recommendation of the Copyright Register, the Library of Congress yesterday issued several prominent fair-use exemptions to some provisions of the DMCA--documentary filmmakers, media studies teachers, transformative vidders and iPhone jailbreakers are officially doing fair use activities, at least for the next two years.

The Copyright Register actually cited several vids in the Organization for Transformative Works' vid test suite explicitly in its recommendation, which is pretty cool and further confirmation of the vital role the OTW played in this decision. The OTW is collecting more links about the exemption victory and what it means in this post; in the meantime, they'll need more fair use stories, particularly for vids, two years from now: 

Concrete examples made using high quality source are crucial to our arguments, and it is also vital for us to know about your stories, experiences, expectations, and practices. As we noted in our announcement of the exemption, we'll have to do this again in two years, and the Copyright Office will once again require evidence of the need for an exemption. You can help strengthen our case by leaving a comment or emailing the OTW's Vidding Committee at any time.

Fair use isn't free, and to exercise it we have to defend it.