RE: [dvd-discuss] dmca international?

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

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom [mailto:tom@lemuria.org]
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2002 6:17 AM
> To: dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
> Subject: Re: [dvd-discuss] dmca international?
> 
> 
...
>it uses pretty much the same argument that 
> the movie
> mafia lawyers have been throwing around, namely that if it can be
> downloaded in the US, then US law applies. this line of argument is so
> outright stupid that I don't even know how to attack it, but if she is
> right then it's the current reading among lawyers when it comes to
> international copyright issues.
> 
...

... and since it can be downloaded in Afghanistan, Afghan law
applies as well?  Geez ... I'll bet there's dozens of Hollywierd 
movie promo sites that violate the local standards of morality
in Afghanistan ... should we chop off the hands of all the Hollywierd
webmasters?

C'mon now, that "if it can be reached by us our law applies"
doesn't even hold water in the U.S.   There was a recent case
(in Florida, I believe ... and I am a bit fuzzy on the details
... and it is kinda backwards to your situation ... but it illustrates
the difficulties of determining jurisdiction) where a porn site 
was operating out of a location not zoned for such activities.
The court decided that it did not have jurisdiction because
they were not making a _public_ display ... that is, you couldn't
walk in off the street and see what they were doing, you had
to "go in" virtually -- through the web.

Now ... I guarantee that someone next door could go in through
their web browser, so the court could've taken jurisdiction on
those grounds if "where it can be accessed from" mattered that
much, but they didn't.

Anyway ... all of that is neither here nor there.  Your legal
eagle is saying that the DMCA "governs copyright", which it
really doesn't.  What it governs is means of access to copyright
materials.  Now, you may be obliged to remove copyright material 
that are being hosted through your ISP ... but not because of the 
DMCA, but rather because of the Berne Convention and reciprocal
copyright agreements.   (That is, a copyright violation is a 
copyright violation, and was even before the DMCA specifically
addressed the new technologies ... unnecessarily, I might add).

disclaimer: I am not a laywer, nor do I play one on TV.

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

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