Tom Lee argues that while new exemptions to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act are an improvement, the basic paradox of telling consumers how they may use electronics remains unaddressed:
Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems are what makes your iTunes movie rentals expire after 24 hours; it’s what makes it impossible to copy an Xbox game disc in a DVD burner. There are tools that can defeat DRM; in tech parlance, they’re called “circumvention devices” (though they usually take the form of software, not physical devices). The DMCA outlawed the creation and distribution of such tools.
However, there are legitimate uses of copyrighted content that are impeded by DRM. That’s where the 1998 DMCA’s exemption mechanism comes in. Every three years the librarian of Congress reviews proposed exemptions and grants or denies them. The exemptions don’t permit new uses of copyrighted content — they just outline specific scenarios in which defeating DRM is acceptable.