But, under the DMCA, you are forbidden from helping anyone else break that protection.
This is true, but I don't think that that this method of copy protection is covered under the DCMA.
Section 1201(E)(3):
(B) a technological measure `effectively controls access to a work' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
Since this method doesn't "require" anything from the copyright owner to gain access to the work, this is not a "technological measure (that) 'effectively controls access to a work'." Thus, it is not prohibited by the DCMA to circumvent this copy protection for fair use(legal) means. This doesn't make it legal to pirate the CD, but makes it legal to publish how you can copy the CD.:)
IANAL, and not a DCMA expert, so somebody point out my errors...
Slashdot Mirror
This is true, but I don't think that that this method of copy protection is covered under the DCMA.
Section 1201(E)(3): (B) a technological measure `effectively controls access to a work' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
Since this method doesn't "require" anything from the copyright owner to gain access to the work, this is not a "technological measure (that) 'effectively controls access to a work'." Thus, it is not prohibited by the DCMA to circumvent this copy protection for fair use(legal) means. This doesn't make it legal to pirate the CD, but makes it legal to publish how you can copy the CD. :)
IANAL, and not a DCMA expert, so somebody point out my errors...
-rmjiv