Why are DMCAs Exemptions not helpful to scientists?
Exemption 12(g) is an exception to the general ban on circumvention to allow for “legitimate” encryption research. But it fails to allow all the research that the First Amendment protects. The statute wants “authorization” before a researcher can test someone’s technology. It won’t allow public Web publication of results, but only their circulation to a limited audience. To do the research, a scientist may need to attempt to circumvent a technical protection mechanism, and may need to build or obtain tools for doing so. For “Acts of Circumvention”, 12(g) applies, but protects only a narrow definition of what is “acceptable encryption research”. For “Tools of Circumvention of Access Controls”, the same is true. For “Tools of Circumvention of Copy Controls”: 12(g) does NOT Apply. DMCA outlaws this technology. Encryption research requires that researchers be able to test both access controls and copy controls, and then tell others what they did, how they did it, and what it means (publish
