How DRM Harms Our Computer Security
DRM and the laws that back it up actively undermine our computer security. On this Day Against DRM, the first one since we learned about the US government’s efforts to sabotage the integrity of our cryptography and security technology, it's more important than ever to consider how the unintended consequences of copyright enforcement make us all less safe.
How does this happen? In a misguided effort to “protect” digital media, DRM makes computer users more vulnerable. It does this by inhibiting research on security and encryption, and by devising methods for computers to disobey their owners.
DRM on its own is bad, but DRM backed by the force of law is even worse. Legitimate, useful, and otherwise lawful speech falls by the wayside in the name of enforcing DRM—and one area hit the hardest is security research. Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is the U.S. law that prohibits circumventing "technical measures," even if the purpose of that circumvention is otherwise lawful. The law contains exceptions for encryption research and security testing, but the exceptions are narrow and don’t help researchers and testers in most real-world circumstances. It's risky and expensive to find the limits of those safe harbors.
