In an article for Wired News, Bruce Schneier asks:
What do you think of your antivirus company, the one that didn’t notice Sony’s rootkit as it infected half a million computers?
Mr. Schneier’s readers answered him:
Many readers pointed out to me that the DMCA is one of the reasons antivirus companies aren’t able to disable invasive copy-protection systems like Sony’s rootkit: it may very well be illegal for them to do so. (Adam Shostack made this point.)
Isn’t it great that we live in a country that not only has the DMCA, but is actively exporting it? Aren’t you glad companies like Sony have laws like the DMCA; laws that keep you from protecting yourself against them? The best part is that people are generally fine with it as long as it fights “piracy,” but DRM has nothing to do with piracy!
If you want to know how we got to the point where Sony is taking complete control of your computer, look at why bad laws like the DMCA’s anticircumvention section are around.
Update 2005-11-23: Curious how other parts of the DMCA are being used? Boing Boing summarizes a study from the Chilling Effects Project. Turns out a lot of DMCA requests are bullshit. I know mine was. I publicly announced that I would participate in Grey Tuesday, and then publicly backed down when someone pointed out my hypocrisy. I still got a DMCA takedown notice, despite not having infringed any copyright. It isn’t surprising that mine wasn’t an isolated incident, but it does piss me off.