01-13-2003, 09:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Unintended Consequences Of The DMCA
We are four years into the DMCA - Digital Millennium Copyright Act - and seeing some things US Congressmen never intended. I am 100% for protecting the intellecutal property rights of digital media, be it music, ebooks or applications. There is no difference between downloading a program with a hacked/stolen registration key and walking out of CompUSA with a software box under your shirt. The law put into place to protect digital media, though, is asinine at best. Section 1201 of the DMCA is the one getting everyone in trouble. Look at what has happened so far:
� Hewlett-Packard resorted to Section 1201 threats when researchers published their discovery of a security flaw in HP�s Tru64 UNIX operating system.
� Security systems analyst Niels Ferguson discovered a major security flaw in an Intel video encryption system known as High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP). He declined to publish his results on his website relating to flaws in HDCP, on the grounds that he travels frequently to the U.S. and is fearful of �prosecution and/or liability under the U.S. DMCA law.�
� Microsoft invoked the DMCA against the Internet publication forum Slashdot, demanding that forum moderators delete materials relating to Microsoft�s proprietary implementation of an open security standard known as Kerberos.
� Start-up software company Streambox developed exactly such a product, known simply as the Streambox VCR, designed to time-shift streaming media. When competitor RealNetworks discovered that Streambox had developed a competing streaming media player, it invoked the DMCA and obtained an injunction against the Streambox VCR product.
� Lexmark, the second-largest printer vendor in the U.S., has long tried to eliminate aftermarket laser printer toner vendors that offer consumers toner cartridges at prices below Lexmark�s. In December 2002, Lexmark invoked the DMCA in its effort to eliminate competition in this market, suing Static Control Components for �circumvention� of certain �authentication routines� between Lexmark toner cartridges and printers.
� When Other World Computing (OWC), a small retailer specializing in Apple Macintosh computers, developed a software patch that allowed all Mac owners to use Apple�s iDVD software, they thought they were doing Apple�s fans a favor. For their trouble, they got a DMCA threat from Apple.
That is the tip of the iceberg. Read the article or download it in PDF format. The file is 338K and reformats nicely if you have Adobe Reader on your Pocket PC.
I have no doubt that if the DMCA had been in place in the early 80s, IBM would have invoked section 1201 against Compaq for legitimately reverse engineering the PC BIOS. Can you imagine the damage to the computer industry if that had happened? We'd all have a brand-spanking-new IBM PS/3 with Advanced Microchannel architecture, 64MB of RAM and a processor about the speed of a 486/200 with a built in connection board to connect to IBM mainframes. Woo hoo. :evil:
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01-13-2003, 09:17 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 47
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Here's an odd thought...
Aren't you technically decoding a DVD when you play it on your VCR? Isn't that technically a violation of the DMCA?
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01-13-2003, 09:43 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,264
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by RedRamage
Here's an odd thought...
Aren't you technically decoding a DVD when you play it on your VCR? Isn't that technically a violation of the DMCA?
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If you are copying a DVD to play on a VCR, I would think you are OK, just like copying a CD to a cassette to play in a car. But, knowing the law it is probably illegal anyway.
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01-13-2003, 10:16 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 116
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My list of the top three evils for the new millennium: the DMCA, RIAA, and the MPAA.
I was so irrated :x with this news post (not the post but what it contained) I had to take a lunch break to relax. The government need to pull thier hands out of big companies pockets. Thought I was going to say somthing else huh, that thought also applies. 
--bill
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01-13-2003, 10:20 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by MaximumPDA
Thought I was going to say somthing else huh, that thought also applies.
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01-13-2003, 10:32 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 33
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by RedRamage
Here's an odd thought...
Aren't you technically decoding a DVD when you play it on your VCR? Isn't that technically a violation of the DMCA?
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I think, technically, you would be right. But a more realistic possibility...
everytime you write a script(Basic, VB, Perl...) to do anything automated that anybody has an application for, you are violating the DMCA, right? Watch all of you intelligent, self-reliant system administrators out there, they might be after you next. :roll:
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01-13-2003, 10:45 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 89
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by RedRamage
Here's an odd thought...
Aren't you technically decoding a DVD when you play it on your VCR? Isn't that technically a violation of the DMCA?
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I believe manufacturers of DVD players pay licensing fees to be authorized to decode the encrypted content and in return agree to meet certain specs and obey the DVD playback features (such as not allowing fast forward during the FBI warnings that we all fast forward through on VHS tapes).
It is a violation of the DMCA to reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to circumvent the decoder for DVD content. Of course the code to do so is readily available - just do a Google search on DeCSS.
I am with Ed on this one. It's this crackdown on reverse engineering proprietary content to create compatible products that is so alarming since so much of the technology we enjoy now evolved from such activity. Just imagine taking it slightly farther and saying that file format compatibility is a violation of the DMCA. Where would the software market be today if programs were never able to utilize the formats of the market leader? We could not have gone from WordStar to WordPerfect to Word if the file format was protected and locked down. Or from Visicalc to Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel without users being able to import their old files.
Now we are about to find out because the content we enjoy in digital formats are also going to be in protected formats never to be transferred.
Scott
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01-13-2003, 10:55 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by scottmag
We could not have gone from WordStar to WordPerfect to Word if the file format was protected and locked down. Or from Visicalc to Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel without users being able to import their old files.
Now we are about to find out because the content we enjoy in digital formats are also going to be in protected formats never to be transferred.
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Oh my gosh. Lotus/IBM and Microsoft could sue each other silly over being able to import/export spreadsheet files by the other maker. I didn't think about that but you are right. No more hacking the competitors file format.
Lunacy.
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01-14-2003, 12:15 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
Oh my gosh. Lotus/IBM and Microsoft could sue each other silly over being able to import/export spreadsheet files by the other maker. I didn't think about that but you are right. No more hacking the competitors file format.
Lunacy.
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Which is why DMCA needs to be narrowly redifined to simply mirror existing copyright laws, or better yet, just modify existing copyright laws to include digital mediums. End of story. It SHOULD be illegal to copy AND distribute software, recordings, etc. It should NOT be illegal to copy these items for your own personal use, or to make develop tools that enable you to copy these items for your own use.
:evil:
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01-14-2003, 12:46 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 332
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Totally agree, in my opinion DCMA is just at this point used for (and by) Lawyers and greedy companies.
I would love to see DCMA amended without the interference of the *AA.
Daniel
ps.
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Originally Posted by Ed
We'd all have a brand-spanking-new IBM PS/3 with Advanced Microchannel architecture, 64MB of RAM and a processor about the speed of a 486/200 with a built in connection board to connect to IBM mainframes. Woo hoo.
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We'd probably all be using Macs actually, Amigas or something else entirely.
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Linear Mode
