In part seven of our interview series, PK staff attorney Rashmi Ragnath sits down with Jonathan Band, a D.C.-based attorney and Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. At the time of the DMCA’s crafting, Jonathan represented a group of software developers who were concerned that the DMCA would circumscribe their ability to write interoperable software. In the years since, he has also represented libraries, who are affected by both the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions and its ISP safe harbor provisions. In this interview, Jonathan explains why interoperability and reverse engineering are important for software developers and how legislators “screwed” the libraries.
How tech supports good policy
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