Yeah, I don't necessarily think geeks will come out on top as far as these particular technologies go. Mostly I object on principle to the government enforcing controls on how I can modify/use/destroy/whatever my property. To me that principle's more important than any particular battle over circumventing dongles or whatever.
I think (say) AMD probably cares a lot less about what you do with what they sell in your own home, and a lot more about how you propagate the information you obtain from reverse engineering it. Of course, the subtext to the "right to circumvent" is "the right to publish circumvention techniques".