Lawful Users: Copyright Circumvention and Legal Constraints on Technology Use

The study of human-computer interaction requires consideration of aspects of interactions with technology that may be outside of the control of both user and designer. One example of when a user's question of "can I do this?" may have an answer beyond technological affordances is that of legal constraints. This paper considers an example of this phenomenon: section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in the United States, which criminalizes circumventing copyright protection such as digital rights management (DRM). The DMCA also includes a triennial policymaking process that considers exemptions to the law to protect "lawful users" from adverse effects. Through an analysis of public comments of support for exemptions, this paper explores the ways in which users see the law as a hindrance to desired uses of technology. This analysis sheds light on users' expectations for rights of use, how these expectations clash with policy, and what this might mean for technology designers. Drawing lessons from the infrastructure problem in HCI, this paper concludes with laying out solutions that can both work within policy constraints, and more importantly, work to change them.