In Blizzard vs. BNETD, Blizzard used the DMCA to prevent open source projects from interoperating with its software. Blizzard software comes with the ability to play multiplayer games online through their Battle.net service. In order to combat piracy, Blizzard requires users of Battle.net to have valid CD keys and prevented people using the same CD Key from connecting simultaneously. A group of users enjoyed the game but disliked Battle.net due to people cheating in the games. They sought to create their own alternative, resulting in www.bnetd.org. This site gave users with Blizzard software to connect and play multiplayer games through their server. This open source project was posted on the web and other people used and modified to code for similar purposes.

In interpreting this case, the court claimed that BNETD was in violation of several provisions and was not protected by the reverse engineering for interoperability exemption. BNETD did not check to see if the user had a valid CD Key before allowing them to connect to the server. The court interpreted this as circumvention, as BNETD allowed users to experience online multiplayer games with illegal copies of Blizzard software.

This case determines that plug-ins could be held responsible for their functionality when applied to pirated software. Had the plug-in been designed to bypass CD Key checks and then connect to Battle.net, the decision would make more sense. However, BNETD wrote the program to connect to their own servers, and just didn't happen to check to for a valid software copy. Holding plug-in writers accountable for license checking is a dangerous precedent. Open source developers won't want to write a plug-in if they can be sued for the misuse of their product in combination with pirated software. The right to author extensions to software and market them has been around for years before the DMCA and now has been compromised by the misuse of its provisions.

Brad Templeton summarizes the impacts of the DMCA focusing primarily on Dmitry Skylarov's case from the point of view of an eBook publisher. Dmitry Sklyarov is a Russian graduate student who made some discoveries about inadequacies of Adobe Digital Rights Management for eBooks and published a paper on it. The paper caught the eye of two groups, one a Russian software company ElcomSoft, and the other, the DEF CON electronic security conference. ElcomSoft paid Dmitry to demonstrate these weaknesses by creating a program which ElcomSoft then marketed around the world (including the United States). DEF CON honored Dmitry's work by inviting him to speak at their conference. While he was speaking at the conference, Adobe filed a complaint with the federal government about the software ElcomSoft and politely pointed out where one of the developers might be found. Mr. Skylarov was then incarcerated for weeks, and kept in the country for months before charges were dropped. Mr. Skylarov broke no law in the country in which he wrote the software but because the company whom he sold it to engaged in potentially questionable business in the United States, he was detained. Computer scientists and researchers who do work relating to Digital Rights Management and cryptography will be less likely to come to American under fear of similar treatment and prosecution, significantly hurting the research community.

Templeton's role as an eBook publisher is important as he has experience with eBooks and is financially hurt by eBook piracy, yet he still supports an open format. He's even apart of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is strongly against DRM.  He discusses the failure of DRM and the benefits of open formats. Open formats are at a greater risk than closed but also see greater sales because of their increased utility. He also points out that as long as the DMCA prevents people from cracking poorly designed locks, there is less of an incentive to design better, more secure locks, stifling developments in security research. Templeton concludes that scapegoating weak DRM on a foreign visiting scholar only hurts the interests of the consumer, the research community, and the copyright holders whom the lock is designed to protect.

The Wireless Alliance and Robert Pinkerton request a DMCA exemption for modifying mobile phone firmware. Their case specifically pertains to counteract the practice of cell phone locking. It is often that the only way to get a phone service carrier by purchasing a bundle with a special phone that is tied to that particular service. When switching to a new service, consumers forced into buying new (often unnecessary phones). The Wireless Alliance and Mr. Pinkerton argue that modifying cell phone software does not create unauthorized copies of the original work. It is possible that in the eyes of the law, the modified firmware might be viewed as a derivative work. However, copyright law permits users to modify purchased software (a category under which firmware falls). The Copyright office recently granted the Wireless Alliance and Robert Pinkerton the exemption.

The exemption for modifying firmware to legally join cell phone networks and carry out legal activity is one of the few cases where the decision was not in favor of the large business. One of Mr. Pinkerton's main complaints was that as he traveled often internationally due to business, it was difficult for him to find a carrier that met all his needs. He found a carrier he liked internationally and a carrier he liked locally, and wanted to modify his phone so he could connect to a different carrier while in a foreign country. The obvious extension is that DVDs with region codes would prevent someone traveling from playing a DVD in a foreign country's regioned player, and an exemption should be provided for DVDs legally purchased in a foreign country. However, the real heart of the case is not Mr. Pinkerton's travel, but needing two different services depending on the context of his work. Licensed applications for Windows and Mac OSX are common and are often embedded into the operating system directly. However, the Open Source nature of Linux distributions makes players for DRM protected media scarce and built-in functionality often impossible. If someone's business practices makes Linux a necessity, they should be permitted to modify their operating system to properly play protected media. The courts and the copyright office previously found that not being able to play content is a mere inconvenience to a consumer. This case demonstrates that the government has more sympathy for business practices hindered by the DMCA. Approaching future exemptions and cases from this angle might be the best way to counter the DMCA.

Alan Cox states in the Felten case many of the speculated impacts of the DMCA and its enforcement. Cox is a Red Hat Linux (an open source operating system) developer residing in the United Kingdom. His statement includes a resignation letter to Usenix (a group that encourages foreign researchers to speak in the United States). In this letter, he tells all foreign software developers to avoid visiting and speaking at the United States until the “DMCA mess is resolved.”

This comes as a direct result of the Dmitry Sklyarov case. He fears that foreign researchers can be jailed for research in security and cryptology they performed in their own countries if it is viewed to be a DMCA violation in the United States. The DMCA prevents security experts from pointing out bad protection algorithms and only increases the profitability of the “businesses of the incompetent.” Without the ability of experts to point out and discuss bad algorithms, copyrighted material protected by these algorithms are exposed to hacking.

He further notes that the DMCA will not prevent people from discussing ways to break algorithms for illegal uses. His experience is that the “bad guys share their knowledge and act without regards to laws.” It's only the people aiming to increase the strength of computer security that will be silenced. The DMCA only helps pirates win in the end. Cox also claims that what the DMCA would prevent him from saying regarding inspecting computer security systems in the United States would be considered negligent in the United Kingdom.

From Cox's statement, the DMCA hurts the United States software development community in two main ways. It prevents international researchers from speaking, for fear of prosecution of their research or activities in other countries. It also means that the block of the DMCA will hinder US researchers from discussing decryption methods and our own security will be weakened when compared to the advances made by other countries who are able to have these discussions.

The courts' decision in “MPAA vs. 2600” prevented journals from writing articles about Digital Right Management that divulge methodology. After “DVD Jon's” deCSS program (which breaks the encryption on DVDs) began circulation, 2600 had an article in print and online which detailed the algorithm and decryption codes used in breaking the CSS encryption. The MPAA filed suit under the trafficking provision of the DMCA, claiming that 2600 was distributing a program which would contribute to breaking DVD encryption. 2600 claimed that this inhibits free speech. As a technical journal which specializes in computer encryption and decryption algorithms , it needed to be able to provide the details to its readers. The magazine complied with the injunction to remove the algorithm from their site but began to participate in what they referred to as “electronic civil disobedience” by encouraging others to post the algorithm and then provided links to these sites.

The court determined that both posting and linking were not protected by the first amendment. They determined that while there is a part of code which is speech, there is also a non-speech component which can be banned under the anti-circumvention clause. Exemptions are provided for reverse engineering and cryptography. However, these exemptions only extend to the cryptographers and the reverse engineers directly. Publishing their results is not considered an exemption. The consequence of this decision is that to prevent lawsuits, technical journals will likely avoid discussion of Digital Rights Management. For example, discovery of important security flaws would not be published because it might hint as to how to break the encryption. Understanding the flaws of the current generation however is essential to enhancing security for in the future. Development of future security methods have continued to be crippled by the DMCA, due to the limited scope of the exemptions.

John Gilmore looks at the effect the lack of open standards has hurt the digital author not associated with major studios. He discusses several examples, such as Apple's iDVD and Sony's MiniDisc format. He is legally unable to copy his brother's wedding using the MiniDisc format, even though he holds the copyright because it assumes that he's trying to pirate content. With iDVD, he comments on Apple's marketing, which states that “the major consumer applications for recordable DVD will be home movie editing and storage and digital photo storage” and not potential fair-uses like time-shifting digital content. He further points out Apple is not offering authors the ability to encrypt their own copyrighted films and materials. If copy protection is so essential to protecting the copyright holders intellectual property, why isn't readily available to all copyright holders?

Where copy protection goes wrong is that it takes away rights from the new digital author and monopolizes the protections of them for only a select few. Competing open DRM formats have begun to emerge to fill this gap. However, a young filmmaker needs to ensure that his video is as compatible as possible. He now has the choice between protecting his work but preventing it from being played on DVD players that don't support the new open formats (most of them), or exposing his work to piracy.

Gilmore's arguments shows a strong legitimate need for an open source developers to develop applications that might be in violation of the DMCA. An open source application might expose certain algorithms and codes, and even development of a closed source application would likely require breaking encryption at some point in the product's development.  The courts and the copyright office generally use the phrase “mere inconvenience” and wave their hands at demonstrated harm to consumers not being able to access their digital content.  However, requiring young authors to get picked up by a major licensed company in order to receive protection can hardly be so easily ignored.  The best solution to lowering the barrier of entry for copyright protection is through an open source DRM standard that either is adopted by major players or at least cocurrently supported with their proprietary technologies.

The consequences of the the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have hindered developments in computing by putting unnecessary blocks on academic researchers, journalists, and especially open source software developers. However, the limits on developing and trafficking code that circumvents copy protection has harmed copyright holders on the whole more than it has helped. In order to ensure strong and fair protection for copyright holders, an open standard Digital Rights Management solution should be developed and adopted.

Sun's DreaM White Paper outlines the current flaws with current DRM standards and their proposed solution, a marriage of the open source philosophy and Digital Rights Management.  They also outline the potential for the future of DRM outside of media content protection.  Sun's paper explains the flaws of the proprietary based systems currently in place.  By tying up content with proprietary DRM protection, the same content must be purchased whenever a different device is chosen.  A standardized format would ensure cross-platform capability, much in the same way that the CSS allows for flexibility across different licensed DVD players.

Current proprietary systems attempt “security through obscurity.”  The algorithms are often weak and prone to cracking, and simply hopes that no one will figure out the keys.  Opening the format has the benefits of criticism.  Everyone will be allowed to debate the merits and the strengths of the systems, as well as offer suggested improvements, ensuring that the open DRM will be the strongest.

It also suggests that an open standard can expand the market for DRM.  While the market was generated by media content providers, Sun envisions that the needs of businesses and health care will far outweigh the media companies.  Securely protecting business documents and health records is a need that DRM will logically be extended too.

The modularity of the architecture allows for adaptability with future technologies and compatability across multiple formats.  While this system has its skeptics in groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, it has received some backhanded complements from scholars like Lawrence Lessig, stating that if you have to DRM, you want Sun's version.

Sun's DReaM architecture is a strong example of how opinion source development can be used to help copyright holders and consumers by encouraging technological development.