The Anticircumvention Key: How Repealing DRM Laws Could Break Big Tech's Stranglehold
Cory Doctorow argues that governments worldwide hold an overlooked tool to dismantle Big Tech's monopoly power: repealing anticircumvention laws like the DMCA Section 1201. These laws criminalize modifying tech products, preventing local alternatives that could enforce privacy, enable interoperability, and resist geopolitical coercion. By freeing developers to create competitive tools, nations could achieve 'predistribution'—stopping extraction at its source—rather than fighting losing battles over redistribution.