Applying DRM to a public domain (or uncopyrightable[0]) work does not make it illegal to remove the DRM. Copy protection only has the force of law when there's

Applying DRM to a public domain (or uncopyrightable[0]) work does not make it illegal to remove the DRM. Copy protection only has the force of law when there's an underlying copyright to enforce. There's a bit of room for shenanigans if you use a common DRM scheme that has copyrighted works protected by it, which means you can't release tools that deprotect those works, but that doesn't make the museums able to get extra copyright out of them. It is at best a speed bump. Modifications to public domain work only accrue copyright insamuch as those modifications are creative. Chucking a public domain cartoon through a denoising filter wouldn't make the denoised version copyrighted. Colorization might accrue some copyright, but it'd be thin - basically only the exact same coloring decisions would be infringing. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._Skylink_Technologies,_Inc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._Sky....