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Subject:Re: More ethics... (long, of course) From:Sandy Harris <sandy -at- storm -dot- ca> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 21 Aug 2001 07:55:31 -0400
Andrew Plato wrote:
> > Under the DMCA, it becomes illegal to bypass an access control
> >mechanism, even for "fair use", clearly legal under copyright law.
> >
> > Moreover, it becomes illegal to distribute tools for breaking an access
> > control scheme. The tools are "guilty unless proven innocent". There
> > are clearly perfectly legal "fair use" applications, but that is not
> > considered relevant.
>
> That's because if you were truly using the product in a fair manner, you
> should not need to break or bypass security measures. There are few, if
> any "fair uses" of these technologies that require bypassing the security.
I already gave several examples, such as making a tape of a DVD you own.
In the case of cassette copies of records, the US Supreme Court has ruled
that this is indeed fair use.
> There is no need to make "backup" copies of DVDs or CDs as they cannot be
> overwritten.
>
> The "fair use" claim is a red herring. Its an attempt to lead people away
> from the central point of these copyright laws by suggesting
> inconsequential maybes and sort-ofs as rationales why security measures
> are illegal. The fact is, if you use these products fairly, you should
> have no need to break or bypass the security.
| Adobe takes this to a new level. In their Glassbook reader, even for
| public doman titles they themselves have pilfered from Project Gutenburg,
| they place the following restrictions:
|
| No copying text to the clipboard
| No printing
| No lending
| No giving the book to someone else
| No reading aloud
The fact is that traditional copyright law gives owners all the protection
they should have. The DMCA extends it to support utterly unreasonable claims.
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