Does This Article Violate the DMCA?

An anonymous but adulatory reader sent in: "Grant Gross wrote a truly sterling editorial on NewsForge about the Felten SDMI-crack paper and how the RIAA's attempt to suppress it uses the DMCA in a most unhealthy way. Jim Tyre, one of Prof. Felten's attorneys, read this article and said, simply, 'Grant rocks.'"

Comments

His questions have already been answered....

[dcigary]

At the end of his article he asks why the Major journalism outlets aren't sitting up and taking notice of the Constitutional atrocities that the DMCA are getting away with. Simple, this has been answered before in many other editorials. The Major journalism outlets (CNN for one) is OWNED by the same groups (Time Warner for one) that pushed the legislation through in the first place!

Re:His questions have already been answered....

[David Price]

This is indeed true, and indeed scary.

Consider the major television media players:

• CNN - owned by Time Warner
  
• ABC News - owned by Disney
  
• NBC - in a strategic partnership with Microsoft
  
• Fox - owned by a content congomerate of the same name
  
• CBS - owned by Westinghouse, which is
  diversifying into ownership of cable music channels
  

We can't reasonably expect unbiased reporting on this subject when the top five television news companies all have a vested interest in preserving the DMCA intact.

One good thing about the US...

[mwillems]

Hey, I dislike the DMCA and the accompanying infringement on liberties as much as the next guy - probably more, as I am more aware of them. I travel a lot, and that's a no-no (DVD regions). I carry an MP3 player and that too is a no-no (even though I already own 90% of the music I play on vinyl. Eh, yes, vinyl). And I am sitting here behind a Linux PC, whose videolan (vlc) DVD software I have only just got to run, sort of.

But I think we must be a bit moderate in the discussion. It's not all bad! At least copyrighted media and windfall "fat cat" profits ensure lots of money spent on technical development and media development. And after all, you can sell anyone anything you like at any conditions you like, as long as you have a contract (and you are not a monopoly).

And most importantly: One great thing about the USA is that you can sue. It is easy enough, and you can win against vested interests. The existing liberties we have (you are allowed to tape a TV program onto your VCR) were brought about in the courts in the '60s and '70s.

It seems to me that the most important thing is to make people aware. I did a little unscientific poll last week, and asked 10 acquaintances who own a DVD player if they knew about the deliberate regionalisation that makes it impossible to, say, pick up a DVD in London and play it in Toronto. And guess what. Eight of them had no idea. Of those eight, four refused to believe me. Do the poll yourself and you will probably find the same ratios.

Then I asked them if they knew you are not normally allowed to play DVDs on a Linux machine. This time none of them knew.

As long as the industry manages to hide this stuff, we will never see free media. I do believe that as soon as Joe Public gets inconvenienced, DMCA or not, we will not see these infringements for long. So let's ge tthe word out there.

Michael

Another "Rights Online" case

[Linux Freak]

Well, this will likely be moderated as ``off topic'', but as it's another ``Rights Online'' case I am going to risk the karma hit, as I think this story is fairly important. I just submitted it as a story to Slashdot but for whatever reason it was rejected.

The Linux Freak site (no relation between the site and this story poster) has a rather interesting story about a good samaritan on the 'net who discovered a vulnerability on the Podeau Daily News web site, informed them about it along with tips on how to properly configure the software, only to find himself faced with felony charges. If you find your stomach tightening as you read this, feel free to contact Sheldon Sperling, the DOD prosecuting attorney behind this madness.