How Will The DMCA Be Implemented? 141
bl968 writes "Wired has an excellent article entitled "Fear of a Pay-Per-Use World" on the upcoming Librarian of Congress decision on granting exceptions to the DMCA anti circumvention provisions. The DMCA, which was enacted in 1998, bans the circumvision of technical protection measures like encryption systems and other methods designed to prevent access to copyrighted works. When the DMCA was passed it contained, a delay to the date the anti-circumvention provisions take effect. This delay is about up and your comments are needed"
Re:What is I Anal? (Score:1)
Grow up (Score:1)
Copyright theives will always exist (and fuck 'em) but I'm not one just because I want to watch a DVD which I bought legally on my own computer.
If you can't understand the debate shut up.
TWW
Re:All this moaning is pathetic (Score:1)
Hopefully backlash on the copyright clause abuse of the DMCA and Sonny Bono law will sink all the stupid laws that abuse the commerce clause, too.
Re:Sobieski kicks Natalie's butt! (Score:1)
Re:All this moaning is pathetic (Score:1)
Re:Ha (Score:1)
The point is, most people don't have access to the hardware and supplies necessary to make a true duplicate of a DVD-ROM with CSS and all that crap intact. What people do is transcode the DVD MPEG-2 data into MPEG-4 (DivX) or MPEG-1 (VCD) losing alot in the process.
As for "people"... DVD CCA is doing a good job so far. How many people have DVD drives that ignore region encoding? Very few. And after Jan-01-2000, no one makes non-RPC2 "region locked" drives. I know of at least one company that recalled every non-RPC2 drive not in consumer hands. How many people have DVD drives that ignore the whole CSS authentication and key exchange bull? Absolutely NONE. The physical format standard for DVD is publically available so you're welcome to start production of your own DVD drives. You would certainly be sued before your design ever got out of OrCAD.
Perpetual copyright is not unconstitutional. (Score:2)
<O
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XPlay Tetris On Drugs [8m.com]!
Re:Comments (Score:1)
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Re:Now just a darn minute... (Score:1)
Yes, sortof. (See below)
My device functions the same way as all the other "licenced" players. How could I be guilty of "circumventing" copyright measures?
Because the DMCA does strike against circumventing copyright control measures, it strikes more broadly: at anything that is "unauthorized" to access the contents. The word access here is very important. The DMCA does not criminalize devices which can be used to steal, it crimilizes devices which can be used for unauthorized access.
Re:Comments (Score:1)
Re:Now just a darn minute... (Score:3)
If you look at the last paragraph in this article they mention this problem, that even if broad exceptions are granted for circumventing content locks, it's still illegal to hand out the code to do so. Sucks huh?
My biggest concern is duration (Score:2)
Will the world 100 years from now be a world with no current public domain as everything will be locked up?
Ha (Score:2)
"We consider that the likely impact of the coming into force of section 1201(a)(1)(A) will be that more works will be more widely available to more authorized (lawful) users than before. Those who shoulder the burden of arguing that section 1201(a)(1)(A) should not go into effect for all works on October 28 cannot prevail unless they can demonstrate convincingly that the contrary is true"
Hmmm. 2600.com attempted to aid in making DVD playing software more widely available and you folks sued them for it. The purpose of DeCSS was arguably to further the development of a Open Source DVD player, something that would have put the DVD format into the hands of many more users. We could demonstrate it much more convincinglu if you'd stop suing us.
MPAA Responds To Criticism (Score:2)
"It is our opinion that the DMCA is integral to the well being of corporations. Not only does this protect us from the evils of software/movie pirates, but his also presents an end to bankruptcy. We have talked this over and have thought of this wonderful (patented) plan: When a company is losing money and facing bankruptcy they will release a useful piece of software with A very weak encryption system. Once someone attempts to break it we will Sue under the DMCA for unspecified (see millions) of damages. And since this creates less bankruptcy -- it is better for the average consumer."
The Real Problem and the Real Solution (Score:2)
What we need is a new law.
The current law grants us our basic rights only as a special exception made after lengthy deliberations by a single appointed official, two years after the lack has been found to cause problems.
The burden of proof doesn't belong where it's been put.
Congress must repeal the DMCA and replace it with more cautious laws. If you're organizing on a cause, organize around that; in the end, nothing else will do.
Explain. (Score:1)
solution: pay once, rip the video to some allowed video format. play that copy
problem: audio becomes pay per play
solution: pay once, rip the audio to mp3
there's no way they can stop people copying and distributing copyrighted materials, just look at warez.
i wonder what nader [votenader.com] thinks about this. or gore or bush for that matter. would it be plausible to make a "Digital bill of rights"?
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pack
In other news... (Score:1)
Re:Quote of the Year (Score:2)
Unconstitutional: This is why (Score:1)
Whats worse, "circumvention" could be as simple as playing a DVD in a player you bought in another region. In this sense, the law is too broad, making commonsense actions like playing a DVD in a DVD player illegal (I believe someone has already made this point).
Omegadan: Dispensing original thought since 1978.
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
I'm telling you, the Corps run America, and you're just a slave to the Corps.
Re:We need a new ANALOG recording format. (Score:1)
That's a very good way to get around DVDCCA's griping. But it doesn't do a damn thing to defend you against MPAA's weapon: DMCA.
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Re:how much is new... (Score:1)
Although I'd take it a bit further, 'everyone' is going to notice when they are no longer able to borrow an album and copy it, or record movies from TV to watch later (timeshifted viewing I know, but when I got Sky digital installed they told me I couldn't [record pay per view], umm even though I can...)
But by then as you said, it will be way too late, the sad thing is I very much doubt there are enough of us here to put any significant dent in the march of progress.
The only solution I can see is more nights down the pub informing the general public of these these abuses, darn :)
Push for capital punishment for infringement! (Score:2)
If you don't like a law, make it unenforcible.
Don't be reasonable, be outrageous. Be bold. Be daring. Be hostile and ridiculously vindictive.
Make the penalties so incredibly strick for the loser, either party, that nobody in their right mind will take this route. Knowing that if they lose, they DIE!
And don't think it can't be done... There are a few less Chinese software pirates around because they took the US at its word for trade concessions.
Yes, Bill Gates and his coterie of acolytes is responsable for firing squads and wooden markers. And I'm sure its not keeping him awake at night.
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
Yes, but a law is presumed constitutional unless and until a court declares it unconstitutional. "I think this law is unconstitutional" is not good enough, unless you're a judge.
"Well gee, your honor, I thought the law prohibiting first-degree murder was unconstitutional" as a defense will not get you very far.
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
Re:time to start circumventing things right away. (Score:2)
Joe Sixpack and Vinny Bagadonuts doesn't care about DMCA, freedom or anything like that. As long as the football game will be broadcast on time they're happy. I have no idea how we can do it, but we have to make more people see the DMCA as personally offensive and intrusive.
LK
how much is new... (Score:4)
It's always been illegal for me to borrow tapes/cds from friends and libraries and record them, but it is easy to do, so everyone does...
What a lot of the DMCA does is provide for a technical implementation for existing laws.
Forgetting for a moment the fair use issues, which can probably be resolved, this would seem to be quite fair.
Except that it isn't. This is really more about power than anything, about the freedom to live relatively freely, to misquote Sabrina (Teenage Witch), 'Every Law Shall Have a Loophole'.
The DMCA is giving dictatorial control over certain aspects of life to corporations (cough, spit, wash yer mouth out with soap) who really don't have the maturity/morality/whatever not to abuse it.
In a way it is quite amusing, anyone can have shares, companies exist to profit the shareholders and are willing to go to pretty much any lengths to do so. We are becoming our own goalers.
For instance, a DVD sold in Japan will not play on a DVD player sold in the United States because of technical protection measures employed by the motion picture industry.
How does this work the other way, I thought that regional encoding was illegal in NZ, but since then a scary source sez it ain't.
This goes way beyond fair use I'd have thought.
(been interupted so many times writing this I'm not sure what I was thinking though, it was way better than what I said though!! :)
Surveillance of US Citizens by NSA?? (Score:1)
Think of it this way . . . (Score:1)
Re:Fair use (Score:1)
The analagous situation is that I build a car in Mexico that reads its position with a GPS and disables its engine when it's driven into the United States. It's being "localised" and bypassing the "localization" might be a vaioation of the DMCA, but the car maker is in violation of NAFTA, GATT, etc. I wish there was someway to prosecute the MPAA and DVD CCA under these bills. Sue the feckers for tripple damages in a class action suit for every movie consumer on the planet!
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
Unless you're in texas of course
no, no, no
Re:Neural illness (Score:1)
So, when are we gonna read (again) something about Sony's new Airboard?
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
"Let's all protest against the
D... M... C... A...!"
That article? Have you registered to vote??? (Score:2)
Can a corp be married? Nope.
Can a corp be executed? Nope, and in some states it is illegal for a corp to go under because of a civil remedy (see the Big Tobacco case). Now, excuse me if I just don't "get" this, but isn't the Constitution the Supreme Law of the Land? Yes. The legal higherarchy is skewed, but roughly, it's:
- The Constitution, which provides the ground rules of operation;
- Federal Law, which makes more clear definitions of what's good and what's not;
- And the Bitch, Case Law (or Common Law). This is law pressed out in court rulings. Read the DeCSS briefs? The A vs. B (regular courts) and A v. B (Supreme Court) rulings make the intricate web of law only lawyers, judges, and felons in good prisons with libraries can understand.
Personally, I believe we can solve all of this corporate boldness fairly easily. Add a EULA to the Constitution: "By use of this document, you hereby attest that you have not and will not attempt to bypass the civilian rights listed herein. If at any time this statement is no longer valid, the person and/or corporation that does so will lose all rights listed herein." Yeah, right. Every Republocrat and Democritan in the House and Senate and in every Governorship and State Assembly in the nation is bankrolled with CORPORATE MONEY. The government and the corporations WANT to take your rights away. Welcome to the Corporate Socialist regime. This is why I am voting for Ralph Nader, and every civil-liberty loving bastard should as well. He is the biggest voice against corporate power. He is responsible for the Clean Air and Water Acts... seatbelts.. airbags... Freeedom of Information Act... and another three dozen pieces of legislation which protect citizens' and their rights.Re:What a load of capitalist bull. (Score:1)
How? How is it better for the average consumer when he has to pump a quarter into his DVD player every time he wants to watch chapter 13 of The Matrix? Isn't this creating MORE bankruptcy? Oh yeah, I forgot, the MPAA only sees things in its own favor. It hates us consumers and denounces all of us as hackers (even the innocent soccer moms and paper pushers).
It's time to dissolve the MPAA. It has become one large, capitalist, xenophobic entity that doesn't want to lose a cent from its bottom line. The funny part is, it's listed as a non-profit organization (hence, the http://www.mpaa.org), when, in fact, it is making an inhuman profit from making the consumers suffer. The MPAA should at least be castigated for abusing the .org TLD, just as The College Board should be castigated as well.
dfjk;l'qwe (Score:1)
rweou5y34iut293p
Note: This post is encrypted. In order to read it, you would have to break the crypto. You can't mod it without reading it, after all it might be insightful. If you mod this I will be forced to sue you as you will most certainly have circumvented my technological protection.
Thank you and good day.
Re:Explain. (Score:1)
Already been tried. Already failed miserably. Aka DivX (not the encoding format)
The fact of the matter is, *given the choice* consumers do not like it, and they'll go elsewhere. What the DMCA is going to do, is eventually eliminate the choice.
yeah,listening to them is like listening to a pig (Score:1)
be that more works will be made more widely available
So this doesn't count for region encoding???Doesn't region encoding make a DVD less available???
I would like them to explain how region encoding makes a DVD more available. That would demonstrate convincingly.
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
Unless you're in texas of course :)
Re:We need a new ANALOG recording format. (Score:1)
Have you heard of the DeCSS trial? It is illegal to make a DVD player without licensing CSS. If you do, it must be because you're a pirate.
God forbid the consumer actually has a choice! Sorry, gotta use MS or Macs if you wanna watch DVDs on your computer asshole!
Re:Let's organize a symbolic protest for the 28th. (Score:3)
Circumvision? (Score:1)
Francis Hwang
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:1)
DVD region encoding BLOWS... (Score:1)
Re:Unconstitutional: This is why (Score:1)
EFF has done your work in 1990 (Score:1)
You are however very correct about taking an active stance against corporatist intellectualism--known as greed.
What should Irk anyone with a sense of ingenuity is that information should be free, but in the intrests of some it benefits them so it should not too. I know what I am saying is old hat, but I must insist as did Brian Martin, in "Against Intellectual Property" [eff.org]:
Much like realestate merket [examiner.com] in San Francisco, Intellectual Property is overvalued.
There just aren't enough smart people out there!
what to do? Free software Foundation? [gnu.org] Yes! and maybe even more than just giving people a better choice--allout attack on the corporatist unit.
I am no Marxist nor do I want to be, but there should be something done. And I feel that I am not alone in this regard to notice that the world has inadequacies about wealth and power is one thing, but to limit the knowledge in the name of the "market place of ideas" is to commit obvious treason to future generations.
ok, off the soapy box, your turn.
Re:What a load of capitalist bull. (Score:1)
I'm referring, of course, to the much-reviled and spectacularly unsuccessful DIVX system (which, at first, was intended to kill DVD). Thankfully, it is dead, but conceptually related proposals like SDMI live on.
Re:It contains the seeds of its own downfall... (Score:1)
Laws vs. code (Score:1)
Let's start off with code bloat. We started out with a kernel, the Constitution, and began haphazardly adding new code. At first, all was well. The new code worked most of the time, and when it didn't we could always slap together a patch. Eventually, however, it caught up with us. Loopholes began to appear, and the system became increasingly unstable as code that was never meant to work together was hastily altered to do so. When a major problem arose, a fix would eventually arrive, but on the whole, the complaints of the customers are ignored, and there is little they can do. In the meantime, the script kiddies are hard at work. As individuals, they are capable of only minor exploits, hardly noticed. In time, however, they work together, forming corporations. Now coordinated, using multiple exploits, they leave root kits all over the system.
Our legal system needs a major code audit. As in programming, such an audit would be time consuming, but it ensures that the code does what it was intended to do. The legislature must also realize that simply because a law is constitutional does not make it right, or beneficial to the country as a whole.
Re:Laws vs. code (Score:2)
Re:It contains the seeds of its own downfall... (Score:1)
Answer: I write it to run on Winblows (which happens to have a player) so I have something that I can compare to.
Re:our first hurdle to clear. (Score:2)
Well, it's time to MAKE them care, by making them aware of the impact that the DMCA will have on their lives. It might turn out that Joe Sixpack downloads his favorite Elvis Costello tunes from Napster because his LP's are scratched beyond recognition. And what if he wanted to get DVD soon, but didn't want to worry about the MPAA charging him a flat rate to play the movie? Then he should start caring about how the DMCA will affect his life.
One of the major reasons why I hate the DMCA is because of how it became law: a joint venture between the MPAA, RIAA, and the government. In no way was this act approved by the US citizens. The very fact that the DMCA will become law soon flies in the face of this passage of the Declaration of Independence:
From the consent of governed. Now, did we give any consent to have the DMCA passed into law? NO. Were any referendums held to study public opinion on this issue? NO.
The DMCA IS destructive of the ends established in the Declaration, and it is our right to abolish the DMCA. It is not only our right, but now it is our responsibility to eliminate the DMCA. The DMCA will affect our happiness in the future; we will become drones, being forced by the MPAA to shell out X amount of dollars to watch a pre-recorded movie for Y amount of time. Even worse, the RIAA might soon mandate that we pay for FM radio by the minute. I fear that this idea (or a similar incarnation) isn't far off.
Do I sound a little like Henry David Thoreau? Good! It's nice to know that I'm the only remaining Transcendentalist in the US.
Re:In other news... (Score:1)
Re:My biggest concern is duration (Score:1)
Mr. Spey
Cover your butt. Bernard is watching.
Re:Too much humor? (Score:1)
Check them out! They even have an opinion on Netscape (not to mention a recording of Booger's trophy-winning belch from ROTN1!)
reverse engineering (Score:1)
Re:how much is new... (Score:1)
Basically I was meaning borrow CD/Tape use incredibly convenient CD to tape, twin tape system to make a copy of original for myown personal use.
Also I'm in the UK and am pretty sure that doing so is illegal, although completely unenforced (have to wonder why, could it be that there are worse crimes than the unlicensed viewing of various types of art going on? but no that is a ridiculous though, what could be worth more than that... [incidentally what's a life going for these days? I need to get a new one])
If non-commercial sharing is legal, umm then what's the beef with napster, they are a .com company, they're not going to make anything anyway, well except headlines when they go bust...
Does any use DAT to listen to music? (Score:1)
The stupidity of the mpaa astounds me.
Remember when DAT was an up-and-coming technology for something other than backup tapes? The recording industry pinheads killed that technology for audio and it looks like these idiots will do the same for DVD and video.
Wake up and smell the binary data, Mr. Valenti! If you lock up control of this technology, people will use something else!
Re:how much is new... (Score:2)
I believe that the fair use clause that went into effect in '92ish (the Home Recording Act?) permits the duplication of music in just such a scenario. Anybody with a little more knowledge than I care to expand on this?
-Waldo
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:2)
DMCA abuse (Score:2)
The problem is there are several entities that have informally referenced the Digital Millenium Copyright Act when talking about a wide variety of protection schemes they purport to have placed as a barrier to control access to their work. In their hands, the phrase "technological measures" and "control access" combine to form a hopelessly broad category which contains trivial or well-known encoding schemes upon data which is dubiously classifiable as copyrighted content.
Under such practice, it would be difficult without new legislation to define what scope of "access controls" congress would protect, and which measures employ a sufficient degree of technology. Would not a modern-day Da Vinci declare his practice of backwards writing a "technological measure" and prosecute any who realize and declare that a mirror would then give them access? Recent experience shows that he would, and go farther -- in charging for the only approved mirror and declaring other mirrors illegal under a poorly written law!
Thus one key concern may not be the access to the copyrighted works themselves, but rather the access to the technology that accesses them. When this technology is held as a trade secret, controlled via licensing with onerous fees, or otherwise restricted from any who would build innovative delivery channels for the copyrighted work, then the DMCA becomes a tool for those who wish to consolidate control of both the content and the cradle-to-grave distribution of the content into a few rich conglomerates. Technological protections should not be able to be considered both as a "technological measures that effectively control access" under DMCA and as a trade secret with restricted distribution. There is no benefit to the public for both considerations to be in effect simultaneously. Like patents, full disclosure and registration of these "technological measures" should be required before the additional protections of any law like DMCA may be invoked.
If a "technological measure" is implemented that goes further than simply granting access to a work, but also executes additional policies, such as giving one group of people access while (possibly temporarily) excluding another group of noninfringing would-be customers, then is this scheme worthy of protection under the DMCA? Citizens and consumers would say no. Why should DMCA be cited to protect a scheme that allows the copyright holder the unprecedented right of geographic designation of access, such as the regional encoding scheme for DVDs? In the past, has it been illegal for duly printed and purchased books, audio tapes, magazines, or other media to traverse geographical boundaries? Are we to constitute a government with no powers of censorship only to legislatively empower multinational corporations to routinely exercise such power? There is an important distinction between the DMCA's intent to prevent copyright infringment and industry's intent "to manage access and to exclude unauthorized users" as described by the MPAA. The DMCA must be clarified to forbid this type of practice and disallow descrimination based on geography or based on any other demographic attribute except possibly age.
Quote of the Year (Score:2)
"To the contrary, the use of technological measures in general, and of access-control technologies in particular, has already greatly increased the availability of a wide range of copyrighted materials to members of the public."
The thrust of his argument is
(a)access control enables the copyright holders to make available trial versions or restricted versions like those cable movies that cut out 1/2 an hour into it and ask for your credit card number.
(b) Access control is a means of making sure that unauthorized use of material is not possible. This is implemented "in tandem with the hardware."
These don't seem too unreasonable to be honest. I think the reason I have such a hard time relating to the MPAA is that they consider movies, music whatever as product. Most of the crap they put out is, "Mission to Mars" for example has about as much artistic value as Lemon Fresh dishwashing detergent. I could care less about access control on product like this.
What scares me is the idea that access to artistic or intellectual works which have real value to humanity and society will be controlled by a capitalist driven authority like the MPAA. ( milar concerns have cropped up with the human genome project, fortunately all parties agreed to release their data into the public domain. )
And it's the MPAA's movies that reach the wider audience. Shudder
Re:It contains the seeds of its own downfall... (Score:2)
Also, if they weren't sueing Johansen, why was his house raided and him and his father taken into custody?
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It's a
Re:He will care when he can're record fight from D (Score:2)
It contains the seeds of its own downfall... (Score:5)
Looking at the text of title 17, section 1201...
Subsection (c)(1) reads Nothing in this section shall affect rights, remedies, limitations, or defenses to copyright infringement, including fair use, under this title. so the "fair use" defense is unaffected by this measure.
As for DeCSS I'm guessing the defense lawyers are hammering real hard on subsection (f) which explicitly permits reverse engineering any access control AND distributing the means to do so so long as it is solely for the purpose of allowing interoperability. Of course the corporate weasels didnt like this so they are claiming DeCSS in "purely a piracy tool." IANAL but from reading the actual letter of the law it seems that all it should take to defend against the suit is claiming "I made this code to allow interoperability between the firmware code on commercial DVD drives and the linux OS since nobody else had made a driver for it." - that fulfills the requirement in (f)(2) that it is for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability and also of (f)(3) where the information gained may be made available to others ... solely for the purpose of enabling interoperability
In the absence of the MPAA being able to prove that any of the coders intended DeCSS for piracy or actively used it for such (and since "fair use" remains intact their lawyers should be able to argue that the presence of decrypted movie fragments in old temp files on their disks is simply evidence they played them, not that they copied them) whilst the MPAA may throw more and more money and lawyers at this they should eventually lose.
# human firmware exploit
# Word will insert into your optic buffer
# without bounds checking
Re:how much is new... (Score:2)
I'm not sure what you meant by "record them" in that sentence, but borrowing tapes/cds from friends is absolutely NOT illegal. This is part of "fair use", and has been ruled that way by the courts. See, for instance, how David Boies, the lead attorney defending Napster, describes it in this Wired interview [wired.com].
So if the DMCA is providing 'a technical implementation' of something, it certainly isn't for 'existing laws.' In fact, it's about to make illegal something that has always been legal to do.
________________
Re:our first hurdle to clear. (Score:3)
One of the major reasons why I hate the DMCA is because of how it became law: a joint venture between the MPAA, RIAA, and the government.
Not to mention being passed by a voice vote so that we can't even tell who voted for or against it. (Safer to assume that it was unanimous and vote the whole lot of them out.. if only we can convince others of the disgusting nature of this law.)
Do I sound a little like Henry David Thoreau? Good! It's nice to know that I'm the only remaining Transcendentalist in the US.
Let's not get too full of ourselves here.
Anyway, this law was bought and paid for by corporate interests. The average citizen had no input on it, nor did the government care to even attempt to see how people felt about it. They slipped it through as quickly and quietly as a bill this attrocious can possibly be slipped through. By using a voice vote, everyone in favor got to get the bill through while avoiding attaching their names to it. Sneaky as hell. How does a bill this big and important get through on a voice vote? It's called corruption. We need to fight this and we need to make people understand what it means to them. Explain how it will affect them. I'm just not sure how to go about doing that. Most people I know just kinda shake their head and say something to the effect of, "Well, that's the government for ya." I'm beginning to despair of ever finding enough people who give a damn about this to make any sort of difference at all.
Re:Ha (Score:3)
The issue with DeCSS is of it's "piracy tool" nature. Yes, every idiot on Slashdot is going to argue it's to allow playback under <insert non-windows OS here>. HOWEVER, that arguement is full of holes and you know it. DeCSS has done more harm than you can imagine for those trying to bring DVD to alternative OSen. Never argue that you are helping Linux by creating and sharing windows programs.
As for DVD playback outside their circle, they don't like that idea. Any unlicensed DVD player would be beyond the DVD CCA's contractual scope. "Fair Use" has become "however we say you can use it." They are afraid of losing control over content that can be perfectly and indistingishably duplicated. It's all digital data; you cannot prevent copying -- even Microsoft has been unable to stop it (argueably, they don't want to.) The best you can hope to do it make it trackable. Physical means of media control like watermarks and eliptical tracks can help to stop the small time theft, but nothing will ever stop the "pros".
It doesn't matter for what purpose you intended your creation. A screw driver isn't a hammer nor is a hammer a screw driver but each can fill either job.
Re:It contains the seeds of its own downfall... (Score:2)
check out the comments.... (Score:3)
No, our comments are NOT needed. (Score:2)
Initial written comments in this rulemaking were due February 17, 2000.
Now just a darn minute... (Score:2)
From the way this article reads, it sounds like the anti-circumvention measures of the DMCA don't go into effect until the 28th. IANAL, but it sounds like this would mean that any uses of it as a defense in court cases before that time would be considered an attempt to apply the law ex post facto, which is explicitly unconstitutional.
Wouldn't this mean that all charges pressed under that clause of the DMCA, including the infamous DeCSS case, be legally groundless?
Like I said, IANAL and IAPC (I Am Probably Clueless), but it seemed like something to think about...
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Re:Does this apply to the NSA? (Score:2)
What makes you think the DMCA would be any use in assisting the little guy against a large corportaion or federation?
Re:We need a new ANALOG recording format. (Score:2)
So while an analog format may be excempt from the regulations, it also isn't very useful on the net.
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Re:check out the comments.... (Score:2)
Re:My biggest concern is duration (Score:2)
What's to stop the US pressing other countries to follow suit in the name of "free trade" and "harmonisation"?
Copyright in the EU has the same excessive length problem as in the US. Also the DMCA is a rewrite of the WIPO treaty into the new US "corporate socialism" language.
Re:Ha (Score:2)
Unless every CD/DVD duplication plant on the planet is run with the security of a mint. (Instead of finding the cheapest labour possible.) Then they have already lost any control they might have had in the first place.
You need to pay the workers, managers and guards enough that they will accept some kind of exclusive arrangement.
Not Illegal Yet? (Score:2)
And DeCSS is illegal because.........
Re:Push for capital punishment for infringement! (Score:2)
You'd first need capital punishment for corporations...
Re:Quote of the Year (Score:2)
Except that "corporate socialism" is a more appropriate term that "capitalism". The likes of the MPAA seek to use laws to eliminate any kind of "free market".
Re:Has anyone read that Wired Article?? (Score:2)
Also it is rather trivial to pass unconsitutional laws in the US. The concept of "high treason" is appently unrecognised, indeed IIRC US legislators have freedom from prosecution WRT any crimes they comit "at work".
Regionalization = Globalization for US not You! (Score:2)
How is it that it is good for the corporations to take advantage of the wonderful global marketplace, but a crime for consumers to do the same?
Seriously, how can they defend this? The Regionalization mechanism seems to be a system designed both to restrain trade and to fix prices? Doesn't this constitute some kind of criminal conspiracy? I know ADM and it's competitors were busted for global proce fixing in the Lysene market... So there should be some way to prosecute them under US law, at the very least.
I can imagine the defense: "Oh no you can buy a movie wherever you like, you just can't watch that movie..."
Re:We need a new ANALOG recording format. (Score:2)
I don't see what the issue is here.
Re:Not Illegal Yet? (Score:2)
And DeCSS is illegal because.........
Because the defendants were accused of "trafficking," not "circumventing," which is the portion that hasn't gone into effect yet.
Re:check out the comments.... (Score:2)
Re:Explain. (Score:2)
Giant corporations have hijacked our democracy, have no allegiance to our country or communities, and are increasingly controlling our government, media, childhood...What other society tolerates electronic child molesting the way these corporations are targeting 4-year-olds [on TV]? They know when parents are away working. Then they market their products, undermining parental authority...junk food...violence as a solution to life's problems. People say it's up to the parents. Yeah, but who designed an economy where it takes two, three breadwinners to make a middle-class family living? These top CEOs are making 415 times the entry wage in their own company. You know what it was in 1940? 12. 1980? 40. Now, 415.
You know, Jon Katz could maybe take a hint and stop using digerati wannabe books as a starting place for social discussion and simply head to the Nader site for some launch points. After all, Nader is a Linux user!
[Looking forward to 2004, when Slashdot hosts streaming debates in the next presidential election, complete with a Questions bot and a discussion forum]
Re:how much is new... (Score:2)
Paradoxically, the fact that 'casual' technically-illegal copying like this is unenforced is a big part of the problem with the DMCA, or more specifically, with the problem of apathy towards the DMCA among way too much of the US population.
"Everybody" seems to feel that since the copying they do for their friends is already illegal, and yet they haven't been hit with any legal problems as a result, they seem to feel that even further restrictions on what they're allowed to do with legally-purchased material won't affect them, either.
I fear that by the time "everybody" starts noticing that they ARE running into problems simply for trying to, for example, watch their legal DVD on their Linux box with the help of DeCSS, it'll be too late to do much about it.
Joe Sixpack is dead!
Does this apply to the NSA? (Score:3)
What? Uh, No sir. Never heard of DeCSS, nope, never bought a T-shirt of it neither. Nope nope!
Comments (Score:5)
All that's left to do now is wait. Virtually all the scheduled opportunities for public comment (read: your rare chance to not be ignored) have passed, as most slashdot readers probably know.
What this thread should provide an opportunity for Slashdot readers to do, is organize and take action should the LOC rule in Big Copyright's favor. We have until October 28th to prepare, and once the ruling comes down, anyone interested in the enrichment of the public domain and the rights to fair use of copyrighted material needs to be ready to stage an information campaign the likes of which has never been seen.
Prepare fliers and protests. Get ordinary people's attention focused on why this abuse of the limited copyright monopoly harms them. I'm trying to compile an HTML archive of important documents and arguments that can inform people about their relationship to copyright and it's place in society. Burn stuff like this to CD and distribute it near theaters, video rental shops, Kinko's, or other areas where people are likely to be in a receptive mood regarding their rights as individuals. If you're interested in knowing the URL when my compilation is done, send me an email with 'dmca' in the subject line.
Make the argument heard, because if the LOC rules to delete fair use and copyright expiration, we have the hardest argument yet to make to change what will be the status quo.
Neural illness (Score:3)
OTOH, so the Slashdot editors are brain-damaged... what's new about it?
Copywrong (Score:2)
DMCA unlikely to apply to CueCat (Score:2)
If Digital Convergence has any "intellectual property" claim, it is most probably patent -- and without seeing specifics, I'd be dubious about even that. (Query how a process for Web information retrieval triggered by the scanning of a bar code is any innovation over a library's retreival of remote database records when it scans a book at checkout.)
Re:Comments (Score:2)
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Re:Quote of the Year (Score:2)
(a)access control enables the copyright holders to make available trial versions or restricted versions like those cable movies that cut out 1/2 an hour into it and ask for your credit card number.
i.e. attempting to extend the legal anomoly of software to films, music, books, etc, etc.
(b) Access control is a means of making sure that unauthorized use of material is not possible. This is implemented "in tandem with the hardware."
Why not simply rename the whole thing "USEright", rather than "copyright". After all "copying" is a subset of "using".
Re:how much is new... (Score:3)
The fair use issues cannot be resolved while also preserving the alleged intent of DMCA. It simply isn't technically possible to have copy protection and uninhibited fair use. You can't have one without the other, because there is no way a machine will ever be able to tell whether or not an access is copyright infringement. Even humans sometimes get it wrong, so it's going to take a hell of an AI.
The conflict will never be resolved peacefully. Either copy protection or fair use has to go. Laws like DMCA that try to force people to accept copy protection, are really just going to bring that fundamental incompatability to the forefront of peoples' minds. Even Orrin Hatch is beginning to see it.
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Re:Socialism? You what? (Score:2)
In that case you'd have to call the old soviet union "capitalist". The abuse of ownership is perpetrated with the consent (and by the actions) of the state.
The free market is what made the MPAA. The fact that they are now big enough to get some legislative influence and restrict the freedoms of others should be no shock to you.
The last thing that large organisations, be they the MPAA or Microsoft want is a free market. Their continued existance relies on the lack of competition.
What they want is a situation where they can do what they want and everyone else is obliged to follow suit.
How about digitally simulated analog degradation (Score:2)
Just being facitious.
Re:Now just a darn minute... (Score:2)
Either way, the DeCSS case is groundless because it violates U.S. citizen free speech rights. Why Judge Kaplan ruled in the manner he did is unfathomable, except when seen in light of his having worked on the legal issues of DVD for the plaintiffs in the case some years earlier. Classic conflict-of-interest, and fully explanatory of his move to ignore the U.S. Constitution. This is the equivalent of criminal behavior, but since it is done by a U.S. judge it is considered excusable & nothing of any consequence is ever done about it.
Moral of the story: if you want to be above the law, become a U.S. judge. (If you want to be directly violent towards people while still avoiding imprisonment, become a U.S. police officer.)
Yes but no. (Score:2)
Corley and 2600 are being charged with trafficking, which has no such effective date. The ban on trafficking was effective immediately.
Conveniently, no (Score:2)