That reform can happen administratively. DMCA 1201(a)(1) empowers the Copyright Office to create new 1201 exceptions for specific acts of breaking DRM. As far as I'm aware, nobody's specifically brought up just format-shifting to the Office[0], but there's already favorable precedent for format-shifting media you own being legal (e.g. RIAA v. Diamond). Furthermore, DMCA 1201 is specifically written to avoid creating new copyright restrictions beyond "don't break DRM to infringe copyright". Breaking DRM to make a fair use is perfectly legal. If a judge so chose they could decide that format-shifting is not only legal, but that breaking DRM to do it is fine, too.
This will never actually happen, however, because getting individual plaintiffs into court to sue them for ripping their own DVDs is hideously expensive. You would never actually see someone sued under DMCA 1201 for merely ripping their own media. The only people who actually need to worry about violating this half of DMCA 1201 are large corporations' software licensing departments. So this reform would be useless and this argument is purely academic.
There's, of course, another half of DMCA 1201 that is far more insidious, and is the real reason why DRM seems unbreakable. Subsection (a)(2) forbids the production of DRM breaking tools, and this section has no exceptions whatsoever. This is what actually makes DRM ironclad - otherwise, companies would sell DRM breaking tools for people to use for legal purposes, and then everyone would use them to pirate everything. Everything but the most insidious, consumer-hostile, backstabby DRM[1] would be completely devoid of value.
What might work would be a mandate to provide lawful access to decryption tools or unencrypted copies of a work for any case that the Copyright Office would otherwise say is legal to break DRM for. If the DRM vendor doesn't comply, then subsection (a)(2) no longer applies to their system and it's legal to sell the tools to break it. So they either have to come up with a way to format-shift works that you purchased, or I can just sell a decryption tool and their shit gets pirated 12 ways to Sunday.
[0] To be clear, bunnie keeps asking for a rather wide 1201 exception that keeps getting denied every three years, I'm not sure if that counts.
This will never actually happen, however, because getting individual plaintiffs into court to sue them for ripping their own DVDs is hideously expensive. You would never actually see someone sued under DMCA 1201 for merely ripping their own media. The only people who actually need to worry about violating this half of DMCA 1201 are large corporations' software licensing departments. So this reform would be useless and this argument is purely academic.
There's, of course, another half of DMCA 1201 that is far more insidious, and is the real reason why DRM seems unbreakable. Subsection (a)(2) forbids the production of DRM breaking tools, and this section has no exceptions whatsoever. This is what actually makes DRM ironclad - otherwise, companies would sell DRM breaking tools for people to use for legal purposes, and then everyone would use them to pirate everything. Everything but the most insidious, consumer-hostile, backstabby DRM[1] would be completely devoid of value.
What might work would be a mandate to provide lawful access to decryption tools or unencrypted copies of a work for any case that the Copyright Office would otherwise say is legal to break DRM for. If the DRM vendor doesn't comply, then subsection (a)(2) no longer applies to their system and it's legal to sell the tools to break it. So they either have to come up with a way to format-shift works that you purchased, or I can just sell a decryption tool and their shit gets pirated 12 ways to Sunday.
[0] To be clear, bunnie keeps asking for a rather wide 1201 exception that keeps getting denied every three years, I'm not sure if that counts.
[1] see also: any Apple ][ game