U.S. Government Exempts Self from DMCA

John Timmer has a fascinating article over on Ars Technica on how the U.S. Airforce was able to violate the DMCA with impunity:

Last week, a US Court of Appeals upheld a ruling on software piracy. The organization doing the piracy, however, happened to be a branch of the US government, and the decision highlights the significant limits to the application of copyright law to the government charged with enforcing it. Most significantly, perhaps, the court found that because the DMCA is written in a way that targets individual infringers, the government cannot be liable for claims made under the statute.

(Via Ars Technica.)