theft , distribution , and piracy of digital content is generally accomplished by copying it , if possible , or , if it is protected from being copied in any fashion , such piracy is based upon a number of reverse engineering techniques . aside from the straightforward copying of unprotected content , all of these other methods require first an understanding of the protective mechanism guarding the content , and finally an unauthorized modification of that protection in order to disable or subvert it . methods which prevent a skilled individual from using reverse engineering tools and techniques to attain that level of understanding and / or prevent anyone from performing such modifications can offer significant advantages to content creators who wish to protect their products .