[notherhacker]

They shouldn't get an exception, the law is painful as designed and consumers have to deal with it so should they.

The underlying laws should be removed. IP laws like this are unenforceable at a global level and don't help/protect the consumers. All they do is create artificial walled gardens. There is no reason that its illegal to jailbreak an iPhone, or repair a tractor, or hack your bmw seat warmer. This is going to continue to lead us to a corporate hellscape.

China has a more free market in this regard until the party shows up with a gun to tell you to do something for political reasons, but meanwhile they are able to leverage a more free market.

[runlevel1]

In the US, IP law flows from this line of the Constitution:

> [Congress shall have power] to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

Are laws like this really helping promote the progress of science and useful arts? Because it sure does seem like it's doing the opposite.

[kevincox]

I completely agree. The DCMA Anti-Circumvention rules are just a hack to make it easier to enforce copyright protections. But why should we make that easier? Why do we have a law making it illegal to do something that may be used for illegal purposes?

It's a dumb law, let's get rid of it.