3 ms·

Does the DMCA require that DRM systems "fail open" once the work is no longer covered by copyright? Irrelevant. Once the work is no longer protected by copyrig

• dane-pgp 6y ago
  > (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that— ... > (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; So you'd need to convince the court that the DRM-cracking device that you sell ("offer to the public") has more than "limited commercially significant purpose" despite being intended and marketed for use only on out-of-copyright works. The vast majority of DRM-encumbered media works probably have over 80 years of future copyright term applying to them, so a consumer would die before they ever need to crack the DRM and enjoy their access to the then-public domain works. On the other hand, works are entering the public domain every year, and some of these will be available in formats that are DRM-encumbered, so it seems unreasonable for Congress to have passed a law which effectively prevents people from selling devices that allow copyright to expire in practice.