Re: [dvd-discuss] Re: TurboTax for free?

[Ole Craig <olc(at)cs.umass.edu>]

On 01/08/03 at 14:25, 'twas brillig and Peter D. Junger scrobe:
> Sham Gardner writes:
> 
> : On Wed, Jan 08, 2003 at 01:27:25PM -0500, Ole Craig wrote:
> : > > DVD ROM drives don't contain player keys, Sanctioned DVD video players
> : > > (including software players) do.
> : > 
> : > 	Yes, and I am certain that Jon received just such a package
> : > along with his DVD drive, much as I did when I bought mine.
> : 
> : While that is quite possible, it's no certainty. At least here in Germany
> : it's quite possible to purchase the "bulk" version of a DVD drive that
> : doesn't come bundled with a software player.
> 
> Johansen testified in the Corley case that he had a MSWindows machine,
> perhaps dual boot, I don't recall, on which he could play DVD's, but
> that he wanted to play them on his Linux box.  Thus he had software
> with the player key just as Sham Gardner states.

	Actually, that was me, not Sham. 

	The question behind the statement is: does possession of a key
confer legitimacy upon a human actor -- Jon (or me) -- or does it
merely confer legitimacy upon the software? What is the precedent for
the latter reading? How can we attack it?

	(The counter argument would seem to be the various statutes
regarding lockpicks -- in the hands of a licensed and bonded
locksmith, they are not illegal, but note that it is the bearer and
user of the tool to whom the legitimacy attaches, not the tool itself.
This is the tool-use corollary to the "selling crowbars isn't
illegal!" tool-distribution argument.)

		Ole
--
Ole Craig * UNIX, linux, SMTP-ninja; news, web; SGI martyr * CS Computing
Facility, UMass * <www.cs.umass.edu/~olc/pgppubkey.txt> for public key