Legal Definitions - Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act

The Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act is a specific section of U.S. copyright law, enacted as Title III of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Its primary purpose is to ensure that owners of computer equipment can have their machines repaired or maintained by independent, third-party service providers without those providers facing claims of copyright infringement.

Before this Act, a court decision had ruled that simply loading software into a computer's temporary memory (RAM) — which happens automatically when a computer starts up or a program runs — constituted creating a "copy" of that software under copyright law. This created a significant problem: if an independent repair technician powered on a computer to diagnose or fix it, they could potentially be accused of illegally copying the software, as they typically wouldn't have a direct license from the software's copyright holder.

The Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act resolved this by creating a narrow but crucial exception. It allows the owner or lessee of a machine, or someone authorized by them (like an independent repair technician), to make or authorize the making of a temporary copy of a computer program. This is permitted solely for the purpose of maintaining or repairing that specific machine, provided the machine already lawfully contains an authorized copy of the program. This exception promotes competition in the computer repair market and gives consumers and businesses more options for servicing their equipment.

Here are some examples illustrating how the Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act applies:

• Small Business Server Repair:

  A small architectural firm relies on a server running specialized CAD (Computer-Aided Design) software. When the server experiences a critical hardware failure, the firm calls an independent IT repair company, rather than the original server manufacturer or software vendor, because the independent company offers faster service and a better price. To diagnose and fix the server, the technician from the independent company needs to power it on, which loads the operating system and parts of the CAD software into the server's memory. Under the Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act, this temporary loading of the software for repair purposes is explicitly allowed and does not constitute copyright infringement, enabling the independent technician to perform the necessary work.

• Personal Laptop Troubleshooting:

  A college student's laptop starts crashing frequently. Instead of sending it back to the manufacturer, which would take weeks, they take it to a local, independent computer repair shop. The technician at the shop needs to boot up the laptop, access its operating system (like Windows or macOS), and run various diagnostic tools to identify the root cause of the crashes. Each time the laptop boots, its operating system and other pre-installed software are loaded into its RAM. The Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act protects the technician from copyright infringement claims for these actions, as they are solely for the purpose of diagnosing and repairing the student's laptop, which lawfully contains the software.

• Industrial Equipment Maintenance:

  A food processing plant uses a large, complex packaging machine controlled by proprietary embedded software. When the machine requires its annual preventative maintenance, the plant hires a specialized industrial repair service that is not affiliated with the machine's original manufacturer. During the maintenance, the technician from the third-party service needs to power on the machine, access its control panel, and potentially update the machine's firmware (which involves loading software) to ensure optimal performance. The Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act ensures that these necessary steps for maintenance and repair do not constitute copyright infringement, allowing the plant to utilize independent specialists for the upkeep of their critical manufacturing equipment.