Hacking the Xbox

Chapter 12 - Caveat Hacker 185
opposed to copyright law). Thus, if the use of CSS prevents you from
fast-forwarding through the commercials on a DVD movie — it is still
unlawful to “circumvent” that restriction.
Note here that the notion of “effective” here is not connected to
cryptographic efficacy. Even weak encryption is “effective” under the
DMCA because the ordinary person could not defeat it.
Circumvention Technologies
The DMCA protects technical measures in a second way: its “anti-device”
provisions outlaw the manufacture and distribution of technologies that
enable circumvention. 36 Continuing the “breaking and entering” metaphor,
spokesmen for the copyright industry liken circumvention technologies to
“burglars’ tools,” which are illegal in many states.
Section 1201 of the DMCA states that “[n]o person shall manufacture,
import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology,
product, service, device, component, or part thereof ” if it has one or more
of the following three characteristics: (1) if it is “primarily designed or
produced for the purpose of circumventing [technical] protection,” (2) if it
has “only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to
circumvent [technical] protection,” or (3) if it is “marketed by that person or
another acting on its behalf with that person’s knowledge for use in
circumventing technical protection.”
Note that these provisions apply not only to the new right of “access
control,” but to the rights of copyright owners generally. Thus, technologies
that would circumvent copy-protection measures for CDs can be
unlawful under these provisions.
Recall the two examples just given. In the 2600 case, at issue was the DeCSS
program, which enables people to decrypt DVD movies protected by CSS.
DeCSS was found to be a prohibited circumvention technology. In the
censorware example, the DMCA exemption permits the act of decryption,
but it says nothing about whether a censorware researcher can make available
the computer program used to decrypt the encrypted blacklist, or even
the details of the method of decryption.
Navigating the DMCA’s Exemptions
Just as you can’t reverse-engineer object code without decompiling or
dissassembling it, you can’t reverse-engineer a technical protection measure
without circumventing it. Moreover, you often need a technological device
or tool to actually perform reverse engineering, so the ban on circumvention
technologies also restricts reverse engineering.
36 The DMCA covers two different kinds of technologies based on
what they protect: technologies that “effectively control access
to [copyrighted] works,” Sec. 1201(a)(2) and technologies that
“effectively protect[] a right of a copyright owner . . . in a work or
a portion thereof.” Sec. 1201(b)(1).