DMCA - Questions regarding First Amendment protections and DMCA's Digital Rights Management protections

EFF history of disputes is here.

From the Copyright Office, a 2000 document stating:

B. The Encryption Research Exception in Section 1201(g)Section 1201(g) creates two exceptions to the prohibitions contained in section 1201(a), the first to permit the act of circumventing in the course of legitimate, good faith encryption research, and the second, to permit the sharing of tools used to perform such research.

(i) Permissible acts of encryption research. Section 1201(g)(2) creates an exception to section 1201(a)(1)(A) to permit an individual to circumvent a technological measure in the course of an act of good faith encryption research provided four elements are satisfied:

(A) the person lawfully obtained the encrypted copy, phonorecord, performance, or display of the published work;
(B) such act is necessary to conduct such encryption research;
(C) the person made a good faith effort to obtain authorization before the circumvention; and
(D) such act does not constitute infringement under this title or a violation of applicable law other than this section, including section 1030 of title 18 and those provisions of title 18 amended by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986.⁽¹⁷⁾

 Copyright Office's "Final Rule" in Federal Register.

EFF's comments on Final Rule are here.