Re: [dvd-discuss] Re: Another Poster Child for DeCSS?

[microlenz(at)earthlink.net]

On 8 Apr 2003 at 17:54, Roy Murphy wrote:

Date sent:      	Tue, 08 Apr 2003 17:54:10 -0400
From:           	Roy Murphy <murphy@panix.com>
Subject:        	[dvd-discuss] Re: Another Poster Child for DeCSS?
To:             	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu

> Michael A. Rolenz wrote:
> 
> > Artech (www.artechhouse.com) has republished the M.I.T. Radiation 
> > Laboratory Series on a searchable CDROM(s). For those not aware,this 
> > was a 28 volume set of books put out in the late 40s describing the 
> > research done at the Radiation laboratory on development of radar 
> > during WWII. It encompases radar systems engineering, radiowave 
> > propagation, control theory, microwave design, waveguides. Basically, 
> > it's THE CLASSIC source and many of the volume are still in print but 
> > not all.The authors are a whos who (e.g., Nichols on servomechanism). 
> > Since the work was done under government contract and so was the 
> > writing of the books, they explicitly stated that they would enter the 
> > public domain at some point (decades ago). So...what's the status 
> > under the DMCA? Is a copy of the CD infringement or if protected by a 
> > flimsy DRM?
> 
> If there is no copyrighted material on the CD, any DRM may be 
> circumvented unless there is a license agreement accompanying the CD 
> which attempts to disallow such. 

Shrinkwrap?....and how can a legal contract be made involving illegal acts. 
Works in the PD are everyones. DRM removes this work from those purchasing it 
now and in resale. As PD "I" own the work. The have reformated it and I have 
paid for that. They deserve nothing more. Now I attempt to reclaim my work and 
cannot. This is fraud. Although only a tortured sado-masochistic contracts 
expert might revel in the nuances here regarding "OH...they signed away their 
rights...rights which can never be signed away" PD is PUBLIC DOMAIN. 

Perhaps one failing of the founding fathers was that they did not provide 
counter arguments to something that was obvious to them and it's taken over 200 
yrs of "legal scholarship" to obscure...Public domain exists!. It is everyone's 
property and so arguments regarding anyone's property are specious apriori.

>Anyone releasing such a CD would be 
> foolish not to include *some* copyrighted material even if it is only an 
> introduction or annotation so that the DRM *would* fall under the DMCA. 
> It is unclear if it is permissable to circumvent the DRM to access the 
> on the PD portion iof that circumvention allows acess to the copyrighted 
> portions as well. It is still illegal to traffic in circumvention tools.
> 
>