U.S. Copyright Office issues new rights
Hmmm, interesting question… The U.S. Copyright Office issued new rights this week. Including the right to crack software that requires a physical dongle for protection if the dongle is damaged or unusable. I wonder if this applies to any physical restriction device placed between the user and the fair use of the software they paid to use…
Since Microsoft and other companies have started the practice of keying registration codes to a series of CD's (your registration key might not work with just any Windows CD), and Microsoft seems adverse to giving out new CD's for damaged ones, could the CD be considered a dongle and the cracking of your copy of Windows legal per the U.S. Copyright Office?
I'm only working with the high level overview from the Yahoo article, but it is an interesting question none the less.