Shucks, in those days I spent most of my time chasing women, driving fast cars ...
Hmmm ... not much has changed, eh?
;) > MLF
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Shucks, in those days I spent most of my time chasing women, driving fast cars ...
Hmmm ... not much has changed, eh?
;) > MLF
Hi Rapier~ I would appreciate your input here.
You guys have some relatively new law something like "digital millenium copyright something?"
That sounds as if it might be a showstopper on the legal front for people in the USA?
:confused:
Hi,Quote:
Originally posted here by nihil
Hi Rapier~ I would appreciate your input here.
You guys have some relatively new law something like "digital millenium copyright something?"
That sounds as if it might be a showstopper on the legal front for people in the USA?
:confused:
yes it was passed back in 1998 I think. One of the most controversial parts of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) is the part that prohibits bypassing copy protection. Which means that even if your copying is otherwise legal, if the media creator has used copy protection, it is illegal to bypass the protection. One example is playing copy protected DVDs. Not talking copying--just playing. People who use Linux (in the US) to play copy protected DVDs on their computers are violating the DMCA (from what I understand). That's because the Linux distributions have not paid the money (to whomever it has to be paid) to allow them to legally include the decryption software. So, none of the major Linux distributions ship the decryption software.
Excerpts:
`Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems
`(a) VIOLATIONS REGARDING CIRCUMVENTION OF TECHNOLOGICAL MEASURES- (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
`(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
`(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
`(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
`(3) As used in this subsection--
`(A) to `circumvent a technological measure' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and
`(B) a technological measure `effectively controls access to a work' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
`(b) ADDITIONAL VIOLATIONS- (1) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that--
`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof;
`(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof; or
`(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof.
`(2) As used in this subsection--
`(A) to `circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure' means avoiding, bypassing, removing, deactivating, or otherwise impairing a technological measure; and
`(B) a technological measure `effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, prevents, restricts, or otherwise limits the exercise of a right of a copyright owner under this title.
The whole text is available here
Thanks, Preacher, for jumping in on this. I remember this being called a very bad piece of federal legislation because it doesn't consider the way people use the media they purchase. It basically supports the music and movie industry and their DRM efforts. Not an expert on it, though.
Yeah, "digital millenium copyright." High and mighty tag for a poor excuse for an industry stepping on their own ...