USA: Video Games DRM Officially Smashed - Apple Jailbreaking Also Legal

The US Library of Congress, which reviews the US Copyright Office's rulings and the often crippling Digital Millennium Act on a three yearly basis to, according to the AP, "to ensure that the law does not prevent certain non-infringing uses of copyright-protected works" has ruled that consumers can bust DRM.

The ground-breaking judgement relates to exemptions "from the prohibition against circumvention of technological measures that control access to copyrighted works". That's DRM and closed systems in sensible speak.

It states that, "Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls until the conclusion of the next rulemaking."

In short, break the DRM on certain systems for legitimate reasons (as laid out) and you're in the clear legally.

Number 4 is where we stopped initially:

"(4) Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:

(i) The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and
(ii) The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law."

So, DRM on your game that you feel legitimately could make your computer insecure... well, you can bust that and be legal. Surely, if that's legal on a personal computer, why not on a console?

Then we looked over point 2, which lead to an outcry from Apple because it basically means that Jailbreaking an iPhone is no longer illegal. This means you can get apps and games from developers who have not had to certify and have their wares delivered by iTunes and the Appstore.

It states that users can legally break protection on, "Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset."

The ruling, as we've seen, also affects personal computers. This would appear to leave a hole where it comes to having to get download only titles for closed consoles such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii from their particular outlets.

The full ruling (available here) is included in a "Statement of the Librarian of Congress on the Anticircumvention Rulemaking" which relates to "Determination of the Librarian of Congress and Text of the Regulation (to be published in Federal Register Tuesday, July 27)".