The Anti-circumvention Provisions

These provisions prohibit circumvention of technological protection measures (TPM’s) such as encryption technology used by copyright owners to control access to their digital works. Only devices authorized to read these TPMs will be able to access the content. For example, I will not be able to play a DVD designed to work on a Windows platform on a Linux platform. Although the law allows circumvention of TPMs that prevent copying of digital works, it prohibits trafficking in technology that can circumvent any TPMs whether employed to control access or to prevent copying.

The anti-circumvention provisions make no distinction based on whether the use is lawful or not. Therefore, one cannot break a TPM for fair use or to access a work in the public domain. The DMCA contains very narrow exceptions to its anti-circumvention provisions. These include exemptions for law enforcement, browsing by libraries, archives and schools to make purchasing decisions, and reverse engineering for achieving interoperability.