In reply to:


The ability to go after an individual (e.g. Skylarov) is the worst part. If I asked a developer to write a ripper for CD's with broken session TOC's (i.e. "copy protected") then that developer would face arrest and prosecution under the DMCA if they were to enter the USA.



I understand what you are saying, but if you extend this to its logical conclusion, then Philips (or any computer manufacturer) would be liable for the same thing if they ever released a version of firmware for their CD/DVD etc drives that could play a copy protected "CD".

I somehow doubt that this situation will ever be allowed to come to pass.

Skylarov was a unfortunate incident, but I can see a way around this by the rise of third party data havens that are used to develop (and distribute) drivers and software that can play such CDs on existing hardware - outside of the control of the US and its DMCA.

Much like used to happen in the 90s when encryption software was being developed for export to countries besides the US. Many US (and other) companies had research centers in Israel or Switzerland to get around the stupid US encryption export ban laws of the time.

There is also the question that if a CD drive maker (say Toshiba) makes changes to their players firmware so that they will now play copy protected CDs, then is that change also going to fall foul of the DMCA?

I would have thought not, as the legitimate purpose of the change is to let the device play music.

And if the DMCA allows such "licensed" devices to playback "copy protected" CD content without breaking the DMCA rules, then its only a short step before the drive can be used to make digital copies of the content.

I also find it difficult to believe that every "multizone" DVD player ever made (and the people who create or modify the firmware for these devices) are not guilty of breaking the DMCA and thus the companies and programmers who create such firmware surely are liable to be arrested if they ever set foot inside the US.
Tehnically under the DMCA, multizone DVD players defeat the copy protection on DVDs.

The sad thing is that while all these copy protection schemes will keep the "honest" person from making digital copies, the pirates will have even more incentive to steal the music, and the listening public (well those that know or care at least), will have no bother with obtaining such pirated music either.

However, in the case of the current copy protected CDs ripping software, surely if you asked for, and your programmer added, a piece of code to the ripping software that let the end user select which of the (many) Table of Contents (TOCs) on the disc to use for "playback" of the music "CD" on their PC's, then this would not be falling foul of the DMCA?

As this would have (and does have) a legitimate purpose besides defeating the "copy protectiion" - the primary purpose is of course letting you select which session of the "multi-session" CD you want to access.
If it had a side effect of defeating the copy protection, then thats unfortunate, but not illegal.