DMCA chilling effects: How copyright law hurts security research

infoneer-pulse:

It was hard to believe, but the student insisted it was true. He had discovered that compact discs from a major record company, Sony BMG, were installing dangerous software on people’s computers, without notice. The graduate student, Alex Halderman (now a professor at the University of Michigan), was a wizard in the lab. As experienced computer security researchers, Alex and I knew what we should do: First, go back to the lab and triple-check everything. Second, warn the public.

But by this point, in 2005, the real second step was to call a lawyer. Security research was increasingly becoming a legal minefield, and we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t run afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We weren’t afraid that our research results were wrong. What scared us was having to admit in public that we had done the research at all.

» via Slate