An Insecure Environment for Security Research: A Panel Discussion on Copyright Law, Your Property, and Cybersecurity

An Insecure Environment for Security Research: A Panel Discussion on Copyright Law, Your Property, and Cybersecurity

Hosted by the Center for Democracy & Technology, in conjunction with the Offices of Representatives Polis, Farenthold, and Lofgren, and Senator Wyden

What do companies that make cars, tractors, printers, and insulin pumps have in common? They all have claimed that copyright law limits your ability to use, study, or modify products you buy as you see fit.

You may think that copyright law has little to do with tractors, printers, and medical devices. For the most part, you would be right.

However, under a specialized provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) known as 1201, finding a way around the access controls companies place on software embedded in many of these products can land you on the wrong side of a lawsuit. Even if you don’t copy anything.

The Copyright Office is currently reviewing requested exemptions to that DMCA provision. One particularly important request concerns an exemption for finding out whether software and devices are vulnerable to attack or failure.

Please join the Center for Democracy & Technology and our panel of experts for a discussion on the DMCA’s chilling effects on legitimate uses of legally obtained devices and important safety and security research. Panelists include:

• Jonathan Band, Policybandwidth
• Jen Ellis, Rapid7
• Matthew Green, Johns Hopkins University 
• Nadia Heninger, University of Pennsylvania 
• Dan Nabel, USC Gould School of Law