The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit claiming the parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that deal with copy protection and digital locks are unconstitutional. DMCA became law in 1998, making it a federal crime to copy a DVD or anything that breaks digital copy-protection schemes.

The digital locks, often referred to as digital rights management or DRM, were often extended or used to curtail free speech, journalistic or scientific research, cultural participation and digital security.