An additional thought on my Security Rules Of Thumb:

The DMCA’s clause making it illegal to create or investigate anti-curcumvention devices exists because stupid people were building their own encryption algorithms without having a clue how to do it, and after the inevitable occurred (I mean, really: ZIP compression is more secure than CSS for DVD movies ever was–and ZIP compression isn’t an encryption algorithm), they got their lawyers to pass a law to cover their stupidity.

If I were King for a day I would (a) repeal the DMCA’s anti-circumvision clause, and (b) force any idiot complaining about how it allows “hackers” to “break their security” (*cough* *cough*) to attend a week-long seminar on encryption algorithms taught by folks from the NSA who have a friggin’ clue.

At their own expense, of course.