At this very moment, there is a bill making its slow passage through the peristaltic functions of congress. In the US lawmaking process,
Laws in the US start as a gleam in a lobbyist's eye, then are introduced into an appropriate committee and debated, A bill typically has different versions in the senate and the house. Each festers awhile until eventually passed some morning when the most vocal opponents-i.e. those best paid by whatever industry will suffer from the law-are hung over. The two versions are then reconciled, reaffirmed, and sent to the president. to be signed into law or vetoed for political gain.
President Clinton Signed NET last year. The laws necessary to bring the US into WIPO compliance have been in this process for two years, the house version HR 2281 is the most recently revised on July 22, and is still in the house ways and means committee, but is now largely equivalent to S 2037 which was ratified by the senate on May 14.
It's important to note that Sonny Bono signed on as a sponsor on July 22, along with his lovely wife. At the time Sonny was quite dead, as he had, alas, bashed in his head.
Both versions contain provisions and language which pose an extreme threat to privacy, freedom of information, encryption, and the general structure of the net we know and love.
Both Bills are defined by two major additions to Title 17 of the US code which concerns copyrights: Section 1201 broadly illegalizes the circumvention of copyright protection measures, and 1202 broadly protects copyright management information. Each bill contains some exemptions, safe harbors, for protected activity and these safe harbors are where the debate is, though it probably should be on revising the language of 1201 and 1202.