But Congress built a safety-valve of sorts into the law, giving the U.S. Copyright Office - part of the Library of Congress - the power to create exceptions to the DMCA to protect legitimate, non-infringing uses of copyrighted material. In October, 2000, when the law took full force, the office carved out two narrow exemptions: one allowing researchers to crack so-called "censorware" applications to learn what websites they block, and a second exemption for old computer programs and databases rendered unusable by a defective or obsolete access control mechanism.
The current exemptions expire in October of this year, unless the Copyright Office chooses to reestablish them. The office took testimony on that question, and on proposals for additional exemptions, earlier this month in Washington D.C., and will hold a final round of public hearings in Los Angeles on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Here is a link to information about the public hearings

Here is the full article on SecurityFocus