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A comment on Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle. Parent comment

Re:Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle by direwolf20 on Monday February 02, 2026 @04:01AM (#46853893)
Defeating a copy protection measure is illegal, even if the copy protection measure is not copyrighted.
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Re:Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle by TheDong on Monday February 02, 2026 @12:28PM (#46858632)
I'm not talking about the copy protection, but the software being protected.

Surely if the work being protected isn't copyrighted, there's nothing to circumvent in terms of the DMCA?

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Re:Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle by direwolf20 on Monday February 02, 2026 @02:39PM (#46860262)
A non–copyrighted work can still have a copy protection measure
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Re:Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle by TheDong on Monday February 02, 2026 @11:26PM (#46866485)
But would the DMCA ("Copyright Act") still apply when there's no copyright?

Here, let's read together: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

> No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title

> protected under this title

A work not protected under title 17, copyright, is thus not covered.

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