Hackers & researchers request DMCA exemptions

Every three years, the copyright office requests proposed changes to the DMCA law.  So this time, a legal team from Harvard University has requested an exception such that in the event of a provider deciding to no longer support its DRM protected content, consumers would be given the legal right to break the DRM protecting the affected content they previously purchased from the provider. 

Downloaded DRM-protected music, video, games and other products all have one serious issue in common at this time:  Should the central DRM authentication server go offline, users lose legal access to the content dependant on that authentication server.  This has already happened when Microsoft, Google and several others shut down DRM authentication servers for DRM-protected content they previously sold, leaving customers with music and videos they can no longer authorise for playback, such as when they get a new PC or even reinstall the OS after a crash.  Unfortunately, the DMCA makes it illegal for users to circumvent the DRM, even if they only do this to regain access to the content for their own personal use again. 

Another group has asked for a second exception to allow technologists and researchers to circumvent the DRM on content before a provider shuts down its DRM servers, which would allow them to document and understand the inner workings of the DRM system.  This would give them the legal protection required to reverse engineer the DRM system while it is still active, such as being able to monitor the control messages sent to DRM authentication servers which can only be done when the content can still be authorised for playback.  This way in the event of the provider shutting down its DRM servers, this vital information could be made public. 

It would be nice if these exceptions become successful.  On the other hand, it still does nothing for consumers who want to play DRM protected content on players other than what are compatible with the DRM, at least while the provider is still going strong.  For example, if researchers are allowed to break Apple’s FairPlay DRM, it would still be illegal for iTunes customers to get this information and use it to break the DRM to play their music on an MP3 player other than the iPod, as long as Apple never ditches its DRM servers for iTunes.  Also, for consumers who already have lost access to their DRM protected music, neither of these two exceptions would be of any use if they lost the DRM key files (e.g. Windows Media license files) for the DRM protected content, as these usually contain the actual encryption key needed to decrypt the content.