Attend Class - Commit a felony (DMCA)

MDdan · June 14th, 2002, 02:52 PM

Since I think this is technically breaking the DMCA, I'll tell you about my "friend"

My friend is in an Online Master of Science program, and the instructor recorded a class that he was unable to present live. It was saved in .wmv format, which apparently doesn't allow fast forward or reverse.

1.5 hours into class, the stream dies....1 hour to go, no way to get back to that point without listening to the first 1.5 hours again.

This "friend" viewed the source of the page, downloaded the 77mb .wmv file, tried changing the extention to .asf, hoping it would then allow fast forward. No luck.

Then he found an app that converts .wmv to .avi, thus allowing editing or in this case #$% fast forward.

.wmv is Microsoft's proprietary format to protect media files, "breaking" it would be considered a violation of the DMCA, which I think is a felony.

Did my "friend" commit a felony by simply trying to attending class? I fear that he may have. LOL...is there something wrong with this picture?

Mead · June 14th, 2002, 03:00 PM

No, but he did commit a mortal sin.
Im afraid your friend is indeed going to hell.

Muahahaha

But really. While technically that may be breaking the DMCA which is freaking retarded I doubt very much that anything would ever come of that. I dont think anyone would ever try to make a federal case about someone changing a file format.

Mead

MDdan · June 14th, 2002, 03:36 PM

I agree that no one would do it. But it's a very bad thing to have laws that make normal, acceptable behavior illegal. In this case, it makes it a felony!

And just because they wouldn't go after my "friend", doesn't mean they wouldn't add that kind of charge onto someone's list of offenses if they were picked up for something else.

Theophylact · June 14th, 2002, 03:54 PM

The world is full of felonies that people commit almost without thinking. Did you neglect to tell the Customs inspector that you had half a leftover salami sandwich in your shoulder bag when you got off the flight from Milan? Naughty, naughty.

Some are even unavoidable: when you load a program into memory on starting it, you are (in principle) making a copy of it in violation of the EULA.

As you point out, making a felony of a trivial or even a necessary act debases both law and respect for it, as well as endangering the ethically innocent (but formally guilty).

originel · June 14th, 2002, 04:42 PM

also another consideration, the prof would more than likely help your friend if he ever was charged. there wouldn't be much of a case if the "victim" was on the "criminal's" side. The law is so screwed up anyway over technology.

geekgrl · June 14th, 2002, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Theophylact

Some are even unavoidable: when you load a program into memory on starting it, you are (in principle) making a copy of it in violation of the EULA.

I didn't know this... interesting.

Emc2 · June 14th, 2002, 05:29 PM

I'm sorry, I missed it...what exactly did your friend do wrong? It looks to me like he viewed the open-source of a web page, downloaded a media file, and converted it to avi...

Kuasimodem · June 14th, 2002, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Emc2
I'm sorry, I missed it...what exactly did your friend do wrong? It looks to me like he viewed the open-source of a web page, downloaded a media file, and converted it to avi...

I might also add that he did this for personal use, he did not do it to be malicious or make a profit. I would agree that no law was broken, he just converted a file to a format that worked better for him