Copyright law hurts technology

[Xeroid]

I just ran across this. It's a pretty good article on DCMA problems.

Quote:

Speaking Friday at a University of California at Berkeley conference on the law and policy of digital rights management, experts from all circles seem to agree that more is going wrong than right with the current approach to protecting digital content. Moreover, they argue that current laws such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)--which makes cracking copyright protections illegal, even when otherwise acceptable under other laws--are serving the extremes, not the mainstream populace.

"There has to be a way between the lunatics at the two extremes," said Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford University and well-known opponent of the DMCA. "We need to build a layer of reasonable copyright law on top of this background of unreasonable extremism."

Such sentiments for loosening the control of copyright holders are finding far more fertile ground these days, in the wake of a number of lawsuits that illustrate the dangers of the DMCA. Far fewer people believe that the DMCA is an appropriate method to stave off digital pirates in the Internet age.

Linkage

[lost-and-found]

down with DMCA!!!

[Xeroid]

Here is another interesting article on how the DCMA could effect business and is being applied in ways that were unforseen.

Toner company fights DMCA lawsuit

Quote:

Static Control's 41-page brief warns that if Lexmark's claims were successful, they would set a worrying precedent and cause DMCA-protected chips to sprout in many consumer products. "One readily could envision, for example, an automobile manufacturer applying technological measures...to prevent competition in the aftermarket for replacement tires, wiper blades or other automotive parts; camera manufacturers attempting to foreclose the use of competitors' lenses or brands of film; a ball-point pen manufacturer using a technological measure and an 'ink low' program to shut out replacement ink refills; or a cell phone manufacturer applying technological measures to replacement batteries," the brief says.

[lost-and-found]

anywhere, where someone has too much control over something, that power is bound to be abused since humans are corrupted as stated by locke.