Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
The wikipedia article says that the DMCA was in response to the US being a signatory to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties.
The US congress had no choice but to pass this legislation that amends US copyright law in order to comply with the treaties.
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They had a choice about how to define fair use protections. For example, the act could have explicitly said that stripping DRM for personal use was ok. Actually, it does say that all fair use provisions still apply but this is contradicted by its practical provisions. The Librarian of Congress has the option, every three years, to make explicit fair use exceptions to the anti-circumvention provisions (e.g. for format shifting), but has never some close to doing so.