Taking on the DMCA

Grok Headline matches for Taking on the DMCA

"better at taking credit than taking
action."

"better at taking credit than taking
action." 01/03/2005 05:57 AM

The DMCA goes Down Under

The DMCA goes Down Under 02/10/2004 02:44 AM
As part of a free trade pact with the U.S. signed over the weekend, Australia will be implementing DMCA-like controls on intellecutal property and media

Rethinking the DMCA

Rethinking the DMCA 04/08/2005 09:54 AM
At its inception, many people called it a lousy law. CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says that proved to be too charitable an appraisal.

The DMCA: Not controversial

The DMCA: Not controversial 08/03/2004 11:40 PM
Last week I was chatting with a friend who now works on the House Ways and Means Committee. Talk turned to the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, which Congress passed in July and which President Bush ratified yesterday. "That DMCA and copyright term extension stuff," he said to me, "None of...

DMCA under attack?

DMCA under attack? 06/29/2004 08:29 PM
A group calling themselves the Personal Technology Freedom Coalition is holding a press conference today to show their support for a repeal of a portion of The Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The current rules that the DMCA outline are quite forceful in stating that no one shall “sell or distribute any product that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure.” While this is frustrating to those of us that wish to make legitimate back-ups of software, music and games, the DMCA is quite clear that this can not be done. Help may be on the way though with the up coming review of a bill referred to as The Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act. While allowing circumventing of many of the rules outlined by the DMCA, it will not allow for any tolerance for piracy however.

U.S. Exports DMCA Down Under

U.S. Exports DMCA Down Under 09/13/2004 05:08 AM
Negotiations for a trade agreement between the U.S. and Australia are raising a ruckus among Aussie digital rights activists. At issue is a plan to enact a law there modeled on the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act. By Patrick Gray.

DMCA Infracture

DMCA Infracture 12/19/2004 03:51 PM
I was served a DMCA infraction for a posting about Next Door Nikki's naked breasts on my babe log. I thought I'd share some of...

Apple uses DMCA

Apple uses DMCA 04/10/2004 08:46 AM
We are asking Apple to Play Fair. For those who are interested, playfair built automatically with GNU-Darwin x86, although I haven't tested it, because I am clearly _not_ an iTunes user. For those who are interested in downloading and distributing the code, here is the project link and source code link as well.

http://sarovar.org/projects/playfair/
http://sarovar.org/download.php/267/playfair-0.4.tar.gz

Canada Says No To DMCA

Canada Says No To DMCA 03/24/2005 07:38 PM

The DMCA arrives Down Under

The DMCA arrives Down Under 08/03/2004 09:52 PM
A free trade agreement between Australia and the U.S. will bring DMCA-like laws to the land Down Under.

Petition against the Canadian DMCA

Petition against the Canadian DMCA 04/23/2004 01:34 AM
There's a petition against Canada's proposed DMCA-like copyright law up at the Digital Copyright Canada Wiki:

We, the undersigned residents of Canada draw attention of the House to the following:

THAT the Copyright Act is properly recognised as being a careful balance between the rights of creators and the rights of the public (including viewers, readers and listeners);

THAT the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously affirmed this view in CCH Canadian Ltd v Law Society of Upper Canada;

THAT digital technologies have recently given copyright holders the ability to upset the balance in the Copyright Act by preventing Canadians from accessing works for purposes that have been legally granted to them;

THAT the creation of original works is nourished by wide accessibility of earlier works, including a vibrant public domain;

THAT dissemination of cultural ideas requires that they be preserved in a form that is accessible to future generations; and

THAT historically, consultations regarding changes to the Copyright Act have mostly taken place with creators, intermediaries and only some special users (such as educators and librarians)

THEREFORE, your petitioners call upon Parliament to ensure generally that users are recognised as interested parties and are meaningfully consulted about proposed changes to the Copyright Act and to ensure in particular that any changes at least preserve all existing users' rights, including the right to use copyrighted materials under Fair Dealing and the right to make private copies of audio recordings. We further call upon Parliament not to extend the term of copyright; and to recognise the right of citizens to personally control their own communication devices.

Link (Thanks, Raymond!)

Opening Doors With the DMCA

Opening Doors With the DMCA 11/15/2003 05:33 AM
A U.S. District Court rules that it's OK to use a universal remote to open a garage door, despite the plaintiff's claim that the DMCA prohibited it. By Katie Dean.

BSA Wants To Make The DMCA Worse

BSA Wants To Make The DMCA Worse 01/06/2005 07:34 PM
While the BSA has mostly sat back and let the RIAA and MPAA take the brunt of the bad publicity for suing customers, you can be pretty sure that they're also freaking out over file sharing and avoiding any and all evidence about how it could help their member companies. Just as the RIAA lost yet another case saying they have to actually file lawsuits before sending subpoenas to ISPs for user info, the BSA is asking Congress to modify the DMCA to force ISPs to cooperate and give up user info without a lawsuit being filed. This is very problematic for plenty of reasons -- not the least of which is that it would turn ISPs into an enforcement arm that will be forced to monitor how people use their network. ISPs just provide the service. If companies have a problem with what an individual is doing, they should file a lawsuit and then request the info from the ISP. Without a lawsuit, it's all just a fishing expedition. At the same time, however, the BSA is at least interested in exploring some amount of patent reform -- including plans to make it easier to challenge granted patents. That might be a slight improvement -- but it could also lead to many frivolous challenges. It seems a much more reasonable idea is to open up the patent process so that people have an easy process to make prior art claims before a patent is granted.

Canada fights off DMCA-like law

Canada fights off DMCA-like law 03/25/2005 04:52 PM
As a member of the World Trade Organization, Canada is expected to eventually ratify a number of intellectual property treaties, but they won't go for a repeat of the DMCA.

DMCA on (public) trial May 21 in LA

DMCA on (public) trial May 21 in LA 05/19/2004 03:02 PM
On Copyfight, Donna writes,

This just in: the California Institute of Technology and Loyola Law School are presenting a mock trial this Friday, May 21st, to play out a scenario in which a student creates a distributed computing application to crack DRM systems, leading to the criminal prosecution of everyone involved under the DMCA.

The trial will have many realistic touches: a real federal judge will hear the case, the prosecution will be advised by real federal prosecutors, and the defense by EFF 's Fred von Lohmann. Brad Hunt of the MPAA will provide expert testimony for the prosecution, while EFF Staff Technologist Seth Schoen will provide testimony for the defense.

Even cooler: the event is free and open to the public. If you're in the Los Angeles area and can get away from work or study mid-day, stop by and check it out.

Link

Lexmark DMCA Battle Far From Over

Lexmark DMCA Battle Far From Over 11/03/2003 04:24 AM
Last week, soon after the Copyright Office made their four tiny exemptions to the DMCA, a story started spreading widely saying that the Copyright Office had said it was okay for companies to create chips that circumvent copy protection for use in printer cartridges. This artic le was the result of a press release from Static Controls, a company engaged in a legal battle with Lexmark over offering such technology. The press release was a bit misleading, and many people misinterpreted the announcement, as if the Copyright Office was a judicial body ruling on the Lexmark case. However, the real details are a bit more complex. First of all, the Copyright Office actually ruled against Static Control's requested exemption - but did say that reverse engineering is already allowed, and therefore doesn't need a special exemption. Static Controls declared that as a victory, and many people incorrectly interpreted this as some sort of judicial victory for Static Controls over Lexmark. However, the Copyright Office is not a judge and wasn't deciding any case. In fact, the court in the actual case ruled against Static Control back in February and granted an injunction against the company preventing them from selling its chips. Meanwhile, Lexmark is still claiming victory themselves - saying that the exemption only applies to reverse engineering and they contend Static Control did more than reverse engineer the chip. They believe Static Control stole the chip design outright. Either way, the case is going back to court and the Copyright Office's rulings should have little impact.

Red Hat's DMCA Quibble

Red Hat's DMCA Quibble 10/17/2002 08:03 AM
UPDATE: The open-source software company is forced to rely on a European anti-DMCA group to publish full information about a security patch.

Canada's DMCA dissected

Canada's DMCA dissected 06/22/2005 01:49 AM
Cory Doctorow: On the heels of the introduction of Canada's Bill C-60, a Made-in-Canada version of the DMCA, Michael Geist has posted several long, thoughtful blog posts about the bill's effects on different interests: search engines, ISPs, and P2P users:

While Bill C-60 therefore contains extensive provisions to cover uploading, downloading on peer-to-peer systems remains largely untouched (with the exception described above). Many experts believe that peer-to-peer downloading is covered by the private copying levy, though CRIA disputes that interpretation.

Link (Thanks, Steve!)

DMCA to be possibly toned down

DMCA to be possibly toned down 06/22/2004 10:51 AM
The infamous Digital Millenium Copyrights Act may have some of its parts toned down or taked out. The “Digital Media Consumers Right Act of 2003” was introduced by Representative Rick Boucher and has the support of 24 other representatives. The bill is also being supported by The Personal Technology Freedom Coalition, including companies like Intel, Sun Microsystems, Verizon, Qwest, Gateway, and BellSouth. The EFF and the ALA are also supporting the new bill.

MP candidates on the "Canadian DMCA"

MP candidates on the "Canadian DMCA" 06/24/2004 09:39 AM
With the Canadian election coming up in four days, Ray called up all the candidates in his riding and asked them what they thought of the Canadian version of the DMCA:

What I believe needs to happen is the creation of a new "industry model", one that understands that all music, programs, books, etc, will be distributed over the internet. What this means is that a huge infrastructure of advertisors, retailers, wholesalers, etc, are going to wither away and have to find new ways of making a living. Instead, modern technology will allow consumers and artists to interact directly. Until industry realizes that this is the new "rules of the game", they will be in the situation of King Canut trying to order the tide to not come in. Part of this realization will be the understanding that consumers simply will not pay the same price for a book, music, etc, that they download and print themselves off the internet that they would have to pay if they went to a physical store and made a purchase. And why should they? They have removed almost all the "middle-men" who previously had to do work to get it into their hands.

Link (Thanks, Ray!)

DMCA says you can't fix your own
tape-drive

DMCA says you can't fix your own
tape-drive 07/10/2004 06:12 AM
My cow-orker Jason Schultz reports on a breaking new DMCA horripilation: a court has ordered a company to stop fixing tape-drives because in so doing, it makes unauthorized access of a copyrighted "Maintenance Code."

A district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems for legitimate purchasers of the system.

How is this a DMCA violation? Well, it turns out that StorageTek allegedly uses some kind of algorithmic "key" to control access to its "Maintenance Code", the module that allows the service tech to debug the storage system. The court found that third party service techs who used the key without StorageTek's permission "circumvented" to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines.

Link

DMCA-Audible.com goes after Goldwave

DMCA-Audible.com goes after Goldwave 05/26/2004 04:26 AM

Trade deal exports DMCA down under

Trade deal exports DMCA down under 08/03/2004 12:36 PM
President Bush signs a trade deal that extends controversial software patents and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Australia.

PlayFair Pulled Due to DMCA Request

PlayFair Pulled Due to DMCA Request 04/09/2004 04:04 PM

Students buck DMCA threat

Students buck DMCA threat 11/03/2003 08:28 PM
Voting systems company Diebold sends cease-and-desist letters after its internal e-mail correspondence is posted on the Web--now the EFF and some college students are fighting back.

DMCA Revisions 'Legalize Hacking'

DMCA Revisions 'Legalize Hacking' 05/13/2004 10:52 AM

Congress hears DMCA testimony

Congress hears DMCA testimony 05/18/2004 07:24 AM
Compromise amendments likely

Two Congressmen Push for DMCA Amendments

Two Congressmen Push for DMCA Amendments 05/13/2004 02:10 PM

Diebold drops DMCA case

Diebold drops DMCA case 12/02/2003 12:15 PM
USA Today Dec 2 2003 10:51AM ET

FatWallet sues Best Buy over DMCA misuse

FatWallet sues Best Buy over DMCA misuse 12/02/2003 01:49 AM
FatWallet responds to Best Buy's demand for information about a poster with a suit alleging misuse of the DMCA

Opening Your Own Garage Safe From The
DMCA

Opening Your Own Garage Safe From The
DMCA 11/14/2003 08:38 PM
As expecte d a judge has ruled in favor of a summary judgment that a universal garage door opener does not violate the DMCA for circumventing the original garage door opener maker's copy protection system. The judge seems to take a common sense approach to the matter, pointing out that it's ridiculous to believe that opening ones own garage door could be seen as a violation of the DMCA. This is a good ruling, and hopefully we'll see more based on this precedent. Now, the question will be whether or not people will be able to use such a ruling to support the idea of being able to open other things they thought they owned - like a gaming console or some software...

How The DMCA Affects Search Engines

How The DMCA Affects Search Engines 04/25/2004 03:19 PM

Judge Says No More DMCA Subpoenas For
RIAA

Judge Says No More DMCA Subpoenas For
RIAA 12/19/2003 01:03 PM
Okay, okay, I'll post the story of the morning. Everyone has been submitting the fact that the three judge panel in the Court of Appeals has decided that the RIAA doesn't have the right to subpoena internet providers for names of file sharers. They actually read through the DMCA and realized that it was only supposed to apply to people hosting content on the service providers computers - and not accessing the internet via the service providers. The ruling basically says, "well, the DMCA didn't realize that there was the possibility of file sharing and doesn't cover it." One judge even states that the RIAA's claim "borders upon the silly." Of course, what this probably means is that the RIAA's lapdogs in Congress will quickly pass an amended DMCA which includes a provision for file sharing. Of course, opening up the DMCA for discussion might be dangerous, as it's possible that some others might push for things to go in the opposite direction. Still, it's good to see that a few judges seem to actually get what's going on. This overtur ns the earlier District Court opinion concerning Verizon that started the whole subpoena craze, and now makes it a good sign that the similar SBC case was moved to the same District Court who now has some more "guidance" from above. Update: Here's the full decision (pdf format).

Feds grant DMCA exceptions

Feds grant DMCA exceptions 10/29/2003 12:10 AM
The U.S. Library of Congress creates four narrow exemptions to a controversial digital-piracy statute but is criticized by free-speech activists, who had hoped for more exceptions.

Congress mulls revisions to DMCA

Congress mulls revisions to DMCA 05/13/2004 12:28 AM
The U.S. Congress takes a step toward revising the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has attracted extensive criticism during the past six years.

DirecTV to ease use of DMCA hammer

DirecTV to ease use of DMCA hammer 06/15/2004 06:45 AM
DirecTV will no longer file lawsuits against people that simply purchased shamrt card wreaters and writers. It is unclear how this move will affect thousands who have already received letters that have threatened lawsuits.

Feds Grant Few DMCA Waivers

Feds Grant Few DMCA Waivers 10/29/2003 11:21 AM
TechDirt has a very interesting write up of what the copyright office released in the manner of DMCA waivers. The...

DMCA challenge to be considered this
week

DMCA challenge to be considered this
week 05/10/2004 12:09 AM
Spearheaded by Representatives Rick Boucher (HR-D) and John Doolittle (HR-D), H.R. 107 seeks to explicitly define consumer's rights in a limited number of areas.

Did RealNetworks Violate The DMCA With
Their Music Player?

Did RealNetworks Violate The DMCA With
Their Music Player? 01/16/2004 01:03 PM
The folks over at DRM Watch believe that RealNetworks must have violated the DMCA to create their latest RealPlayer 10 software that can play songs downloaded off of other music download stores like iTunes or Napster 2.0. No matter what you think of the DMCA, though, I don't think that's true at all. The point of the copy protection technology used by iTunes and Napster (and others) is to prevent copying of the songs. If you're playing the song from the same location with a different application, then no copying has occurred. The only issue is building a player that recognizes the specific file formats - and Apple with their AAC files and Napster with their WMA files are pretty well known file formats. I don't think either application was designed so that songs downloaded to them could only be played within their software. So, am I missing something, or is this article off-base? If they are off-base, then it means it's the second time in a row - as the whole point of this article was to correct a mistake in the guy's last article, where he claimed that RealPlayer 10 couldn't play songs from iTunes or Napster.
Grok Description matches for Taking on the DMCA
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Taking on the DMCA

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