NYFU Comment for DMCA Anticircumvention Hearings

This is a comment on the class of works proposed by Edward W.
Felten and Deirdre K. Mulligan to be exempt from the prohibition
on circumvention of DRM under the DMCA.

Our comment is that the Felten-Mulligan class is drawn too
narrowly. We present an amended definition of the Felten-Mulligan
class of works, with brief arguments.

0. The class of works which should be exempt from the
Anti-Circumvention Clauses of the DMCA consists of all malicious
software, including viruses, worms, spywares, trojan horses,
remote controllers, rootkits, and more.  The phrase "malicious
software" designates programs which cause harms to a computer
and/or its owner, and which are placed on the computer against
the owner's wishes and without the owner's express consent. 
Malicious software might be delivered with a computer or be
installed later.  Some malicious software may be contained in, or
make use of, components installed as hardware.

1. Harms from not granting the exemption: Millions of home and
business computer owners have had to remove malicious software
from their computers.  Many computer owners have had credit card
numbers and bank passwords appropriated and compromised.  If the
circumvention of Technological Protective Measures preventing
malicious software from being detected, analyzed, or removed,
were illegal, then the DMCA would be used as a shield against
computer owners' rights to maintain control over their computers.

The numbers here are easy to estimate as being in the billions of