RE: [dvd-discuss] Postage Meters and the "Right to Tinker"

["Richard Hartman" <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Zulauf [mailto:johnzu@ia.nsc.com]
...
> microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> > 
> > What infringing copies? TurboTax has sent them out! They 
> are not infringing
> > copies because nobody made a copy.
> 
> The infringing copy is the the one you make when you install TurboTax
> without an RTU.  The fact that it was sent to you sans key passes the
> "reasonable person" test that the recipient knew or should have known
> (especially with the explicit instructions on the packaging as Richard
> described them), that no RTU for TurboTax was provided, only 
> the RTU for
> the installer.


Aaah, but the "gift" aspect is still here.

If all the CD contained was an installer, and upon
supplying the credit card information it _downloaded_
TurboTax for me, you'd be correct.

But TurboTax is _present_on_the_CD_, and hence was
part of the gift.  You can't say "the installer was
a gift but TurboTax wasn't" because they are _both_
completely present on the gift CD.

> 
> I agree about in the impact on balance when encryption is applied
> post-first-sale.  Pre-first-sale encryption enables a host of 
> useful (to
> the public) business and distribution models, enables 
> disintermediation,
> and protects privacy**.  
> 
> This is why I keep yammering on about the important distinction of pre
> vs. post sale circumvention, 

Yes ... but you are too hung up on the "first sale" thing.

If you consider "pre first-sale TPM vs. post first-sale TPM"
then you include the DVD but exclude TurboTax because I 
haven't bought the key (where you conider the first sale
to be made).

However, the main aspect "first sale" is that it transfers 
ownership ... but there are other ways of transferring ownership,
and recieving a gift is one of them.

If you rephrase you distinction to be "pre-ownership TPM
vs. post-ownership TPM" then both the DVD and TurboTax fall
on the same side of the divide because I _own_ that CD I
recieved as a gift.


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

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