The

The freedom of use of knowledge products is the main characteristic of the digital environment which challenges traditional copyright law. The development and diffusion of digital technology permits unauthorised creation of unlimited and costless copies. The copyright industries are re-sponding by using anti-circumvention measures such as encryption technologies. This paper fo-cuses mostly on the interface between the technological protection measures and the exemptions to copyright under the European Copyright Directive, article 6(4) and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, section 1201. The policy reasons and objectives of the provisions will be pre-sented. Then their impact on the rights of the users and the effectiveness of the provisions will be assessed. Finally specific proposals are being suggested for a balance between the rights of the copyright holders and the public in the digital environment. The different implementation meth-ods of article 6(4) by the member states are also criticized