RE: [dvd-discuss] New DMCA case: ACLU sues filtering software maker N2H2

["Glendon M. Gross" <gross(at)xinetd.ath.cx>]

You have an excellent point.  Where fair use is infringed upon, these
technologies actually
violate the fair use provisions of the copyright law rather than "protect"
it.

This kind of doublespeak seems to abound when these systems are
legislatively mandated.
Ultimately it is the consumer who needs protection from the over-zealous
media
manufacturers who want to prevent users from sharing.   The irony here is
that many of these provisions have the potential to result in the death
of the media they are supposedly protecting.  Consumers are likely
to resent their freedoms being taken away and feel cheated, resulting
in the abandoning of media that otherwise would have held great promise.
DAT tapes are a case in point. They never became a mass medium because the
rules were too restrictive.

The market has a way of punishing those who are too greedy, as proprietary
computer manufacturers learned in the 1980's.


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
[mailto:owner-dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu]On Behalf Of Richard
Hartman
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 9:13 AM
To: 'dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu'
Subject: RE: [dvd-discuss] New DMCA case: ACLU sues filtering software
maker N2H2


I noticed something in that report ... a terminology
thing again.

"Copyright protection systems".  Well, who could argue
against those?  We all support copyright, right?

The thing is that these _aren't_ _copyright_ protection
systems ... they are _content_ protection systems, blindly
protecting content sometimes even in violation of copyright
law.

A small thing, perhaps, but significant when setting
the tone of the discussion, especially before the court.

--
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi./sec ... not just a good idea, it's the LAW!


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Declan McCullagh [mailto:lists@politechbot.com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 7:39 AM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: [dvd-discuss] New DMCA case: ACLU sues filtering
> software maker
> N2H2
>
>
>
>
> http://news.com.com/2100-1023-946266.html?tag=politech
>
>    ACLU lawsuit targets copyright law
>    By Declan McCullagh
>    July 25, 2002, 6:30 AM PT
>
>    WASHINGTON--The American Civil Liberties Union plans to
> file a lawsuit
>    on Thursday in an attempt to overturn key portions of a
> controversial
>    1998 copyright law.
>
>    The suit asks a federal judge to rule that the Digital Millennium
>    Copyright Act (DMCA) is so sweeping that it unconstitutionally
>    interferes with researchers' ability to evaluate the
> effectiveness of
>    Internet filtering software.
>
>    By suing on behalf of a 22-year-old programmer who's
> researching the
>    oft-buggy products, the civil liberties group hopes to prompt the
>    first ruling that would curtail the DMCA's wide reach.
>
>    After the DMCA was used to intimidate Princeton professor Ed Felten
>    and his colleagues into self-censoring a presentation last
> year, the
>    law became an instant magnet for criticism. But so far, every judge
>    has upheld the DMCA's broad restrictions on the "circumvention of
>    copyright protection systems."
>
>    This case will be different, the ACLU hopes, because it features a
>    sympathetic plaintiff, Ben Edelman, and because it involves the
>    socially beneficial act of critiquing software that is
> frequently used
>    in public schools and libraries. Edelman had testified as an expert
>    witness in a case the ACLU brought against a federal law that
>    compelled public libraries to install filters.
>
>    [...]
>