Courtesy of Donna, who in her turn got it from Lawrence Solum, I learn of an excellent paper by Professor Joseph Liu at Boston College, The DMCA and the Regulation of Scientific Research. From the abstract:

"This Article analyzes the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
(DMCA) on academic encryption research. In this Article, I argue that for
both legal and practical reasons academic encryption researchers should be
able to conduct and publish certain types of research without significant
fear of liability under the DMCA. However, the DMCA will have a
non-trivial impact on the conditions under which such research takes place,
and this impact can be expected to have several undesirable effects. More
broadly, this impact highlights the problematic way in which the DMCA
regulates scientific research in furtherance of intellectual property rights.
The Article concludes with a number of suggestions for mitigating some of
these negative effects. "

From the paper:

"Specifically, the DMCA: imposes additional hurdles,
which researchers must overcome before engaging in
and publishing their research; limits the universe of
individuals with whom researchers can freely
communicate about their research; requires disclosure of
the intention to engage in research to third-parties;
affects the content of academic research papers; and
limits avenues for publication of the research. "