The Copyright Act includes provisions about circumventing technological protection measures (TPMs) used by copyright owners to control access to, and/or copying of, digital material.

The Act prohibits making a circumvention device for someone else, and supplying a circumvention device or service. It also prohibits the cirumvention of a TPM that controls access, but does not prohibit the circumvention of a TPM that controls copying of material to which you have legitimate access.

The prohibitions do not apply to certain access-control TPMs used for region-coding of DVDs and computer games, or to TPMs that restrict the use of a machine or device (such as a printer) by controlling access to a computer program that operates the machine or device.

A person who does something with a TPM that is prohibited by the Copyright Act can be sued by the copyright owner and/or charged with an offence by the police.

There are some limited exceptions to the prohibitions in the Copyright Act. For example, a library can circumvent an access-control TPM to view material in order to decide whether or not to purchase that material.

Decoding encrypted broadcasts

The Copyright Act has prohibitions against decoding encrypted broadcasts (such as Pay TV), and against making or supplying decoders.

Removing or altering rights management information

The Copyright Act includes prohibitions against removing or altering "electronic rights management information" – information about the copryight owner or information about the terms of use.