SPN needs your stories! Most importantly, we need stories that show the importance of REMOTE ACCESS to software titles for research and teaching (meaning access anywhere outside the physical premises of the library or archives, including at other locations on an institution's campus, or via authenticated VPN). We believe the current rules' limitation to on-site access is the best place to seek improvement, but we would love to hear any stories you have about the need for software preservation and access that is not currently permitted by the DMCA exemptions for software preservation. (See the Preservationist's Guide to learn more about what is currently covered: https://www.softwarepreservationnetwork.org/a-preservationists-guide-to-the-dmca-exemption-for-software-preservation/.) Please fill out this form if you would be willing to talk with someone from SPN or the Harvard Cyberlaw Clinic about examples in your practice. We just need your name and contact information. You can provide a brief summary of your example in the space provided, or just wait and speak with us in our follow-up conversation.

Additional background: The Copyright Office is gearing up again for its triennial rule-making to grant temporary exemptions from the digital locks provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. SPN is teaming up with the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law School to ask for new, expanded exemptions that protect our right to preserve software that is encumbered with digital rights management (dongles, authentication servers, authentication keys, and other measures that restrict access and copying). The most serious flaw in the current exemption is that it only permits access on the premises of the preserving library or archives. We are hopeful that the current crisis has shown the short-sightedness of that limitation, but we MUST HAVE good stories to tell if we want to present the strongest possible case.