John Leyden in the Register reports that gaffer tape can be used to defeat the offending rootkit installing drm on Sony CDs (though I wouldn't recommend putting gaffer tape on CDs as the resulting loss of balance will probably lead to the CD getting scratched).
But since gaffer tape can be used for this purpose does that make it a technological protection measure (tpm) circumvention device. In which case does it breach the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the EU copyright directive?
So could someone be engaging in a criminal act by sticking a bit of tape on a CD to prevent that CD installing destructive code on their computer?
Given the precedent of the Hacker 2600 case (Corley v Universal), where a journalist was banned from linking to websites with DeCSS DVD security circumvention codes, could Leyden be in breach of the DMCA?
What about turning off of the autorun feature on Windows to prevent the Sony CD from automatically installing the destructive drm code? Could adjusting the default options on your own computer be a tpm circumvention mechanism?
Do I think the absurdities of music (and other copyrighted materials) protected by digital fences (drm), which in turn are protected by law with the threat of criminal sanctions, will now magically become clear?
Is that a flying pig I see over there?
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