The U.S. office in charge of creating allowed exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) has granted researchers the right to hack the security preventing interoperability of wireless phones with other carriers' networks and to reverse engineer the digital rights management on audio CDs for security testing.

The exemptions, which will take effect Monday, November 27 and last three years, are among a total of six published by the U.S. Copyright Office this week. The periodic rulings, specifically called for by Section 1201 of the DMCA, allow people to circumvent the copyright protections surrounding digital content in particular circumstances.

Security Focus