Isn DeCSS covered by the reverse engineering exemptions?
According to 1201(f), a “a person who has lawfully obtained the right to use a copy of a computer program” may circumvent access control technology for two purposes: • To analyze and identify “those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs”. • To achieve said interoperability between computer programs. These actions are limited to the extent that committing them constitutes copyright infringement. There is considerable doubt as to whether this passage applies to digital media, and to whether or not reverse-engineering CSS constitutes an attempt to achieve interoperability between computer programs. See 3.4.1 for the legal definition of “program”. The Senate Committee Report on the DMCA says: Section 1201(f) applies to computer programs as such, regardless of their medium of fixation, and not to works generally, such as music or audiovisual works, which may be fixed or distributed in digital f
