■■ The development of circumvention technologies: This means that a per-
son may not develop or make available any product or technology that
circumvents a DRM technology. In case you’re wondering: Yes, the aver-
age keygen program qualifies. In fact, a person developinga keygen vio-
lates this section, and a person usinga keygen violates the previous one.
■■ In case you’re truly a law-abiding citizen, a keygen is a program that
generates a serial number on the fly for programs that request a serial
number during installation. Keygens are (illegally) available online for
practically any program that requires a serial number. Copy protections
and keygens are discussed in depth in Part III of this book.
Luckily, the DMCA makes several exceptions in which circumvention is
allowed. Here is a brief examination of each of the exemptions provided in the
DMCA:
■■ Interoperability: reversing and circumventing DRM technologies may
be allowed in circumstances where such work is needed in order to
interoperate with the software product in question. For example, if a
program was encrypted for the purpose of copy protecting it, a soft-
ware developer may decrypt the program in question if that’s the only
way to interoperate with it.
■■ Encryption research: There is a highly restricted clause in the DMCA
that allows researchers of encryption technologies to circumvent copy-
right protection technologies in encryption products. Circumvention is
only allowed if the protection technologies interfere with the evaluation
of the encryption technology.
■■ Security testing: A person may reverse and circumvent copyright pro-
tection software for the purpose of evaluating or improving the security
of a computer system.
■■ Educational institutions and public libraries: These institutions may
circumvent a copyright protection technology in order to evaluate the
copyrighted work prior to purchasing it.
■■ Government investigation: Not surprisingly, government agencies
conducting investigations are not affected by the DMCA.
■■ Regulation: DRM Technologies may be circumvented for the purpose
of regulating the materials accessible to minors on the Internet. So, a
theoretical product that allows unmonitored and uncontrolled Internet
browsing may be reversed for the purpose of controlling a minor’s use
of the Internet.
■■ Protection of privacy: Products that collect or transmit personal infor-
mation may be reversed and any protection technologies they include
may be circumvented.Foundations 21