DMCA and NP problems?

[lukatmyshu]

Part of the DMCA states

`Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems


(A)

No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
(from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html)

Now imagine that I have used a prime-number factoring system to encrypt my copyrighted work. Wouldn't this imply that trying to 'factor' the secret-key would be, in effect, circumenventing my copyright? More importantly, since factoring is an N-Complete problem if I discover the polynomical solution to ANY NP-problem, is that a violation of the DMCA?

 

[rjain]

No.

 

[CheetahMk2]

Actualy, it would be, since it is a 'good faith' [YOu don't even need that part, though...] effort on your part to protect your work. Considering things as lame as ROT13 [rotating stuff in an Adobe PDF 13 letter of the alphabet] is considered 'security', and 'copy protection', I would say yes.

The *Russian* hacker who wrote about this, then came to US later, was arrested after a presentation at Defcon. The DMCA isa ludicrous piece of legislation that lets you sue people at the drop of a hat. That's about it.

 

[rjain]

The amount of time it takes to crack a key has no bearing on whether you circumvented the protection or not. You have to DO something, not merely prove that it could be done in a certain time constraint.