Bill Machrone at PC Magazine lays out the problems that have come out of the DMCA (here in the US - there are similar laws either on the books or being pushed elsewhere):

But if I did, I'd probably be in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and it just might become the high-visibility test case that has me, PC Magazine, and Ziff Davis Media staring down the barrels of a lawsuit. Everything you need to know is on the Web, of course, and pointing you to the links would be the courteous thing to do. I'd planned to write a Solutions story on how to remove the driver that prevents your PC from ripping protected CDs, but I chickened out, because companies such as Sony and EMI have announced that they are upping their commitment to SunnComm and Macrovision copy protection on their releases. This means that they're now after the little guys, in addition to the counterfeiters, bootleggers, and big file-sharing networks.

This is the place the bozos at the RIAA and MPAA want to take us - and companies like Microsoft are only to happy to help them. Bill has an idea about what should be done:

Fortunately, the DMCA was enacted with a built-in review period, and it's time for the federal Copyright Office to review the anticircumvention provisions. If you would like to comment online, you can do so at www.copyright.gov/1201 /comment_forms/index.html.

I'm with Bill on this one