Serial Cables Illegal Due to DMCA?

Colin McMillen writes "I've recently had an interesting run-in with the DMCA... apparently, US Customs has rejected entry of a PC<->Sega Dreamcast serial cable into the US, supposedly due to copyright violations. This cable was to be used for Dreamcast programming for the Real-Time Systems class offered at my university. This seems to be a clear case of the DMCA abridging a perfectly valid educational use of a perfectly legal piece of hardware."

Comments

Does it make them illegal?

[qurob]

If it does, I'm going to Best Buy and hoarding them all!

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[Traxton1]

If you read that he said he was importing them from Hong Kong, I'm fairly certain that your local Best Buy would not be carrying such a product.

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[blibbleblobble]

Look, IT WAS RETURNED ON THE CHARGE OF BEING A COPYRIGHT VIOLATION. Can somebody please explain to me what was copied? Does somebody own american copyright on how to design these serial cables?

The possible uses for the cable have no relevance whatsoever, for the same reason that cooking knives are not illegal, nor is hot coffee, nor are bowls of water.

"The percieved normal use for coffee is that of burning people, therefore we are impounding your caffenated drink under assault laws. As everyone knows, or should know, the centre of the coffee industry is Belgium, thus we require you to stand trial in a Belgian court"

Can the americans please grow up, and spend some time fixing their legal system? It's so annoying that nobody from the free world dares to visit, and the EFF's AGM has to be in Canada.

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[zeno_2]

Its funny that I could probably order blank cds from another country and they would get here fine.

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh god, not coffee!!!!

For your daily dose of funny!

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just as soon as the EU folks stop trying to legislate our constitutional rights away, that's when we'll "fix" our legal system.....

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[blibbleblobble]

The EU? Surely you're referring to the only area in the world to *have* rights legally protected, as opposed to the US which is at the top of Amnesty International's list of human-rights abusers.



Yes, that means that you kill more people than Burma does. Yes, that means you kill children, and yet still consider yourself the "free world"

Re:Does it make them illegal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, the US government has said that Rave partys are now illegal because the "primary reason" for having one is to take ecstacy. Crazy.

hmm..

[waspleg]

maybe if they piss off enough sufficiently large corporations they will repeal it..

i doubt lobbying congress would do any good since i don't have millions to drop into their campaign war chests..

Re:hmm..

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh, yes. This is why I want to fuck the skull
of Jack Valenti. May his grave be drenched in
urine and feces in perpetuity.

Why not?

[Registered Coward v2]

They obviously want to prevent serial crimnials from committing serial crimes.

Re:Why not?

[Anonymous Coward]

Better than massively parrallel criminals init?

Publish the pinouts! :)

[Deagol]

Surely someone must already have this cable, who would be willing to post the pinouts in a public forum?

Never having seen a dreamcast, I bet it has a non-standard connector, so a nice pre-fab cable would be better. However, in light of this totally lame event... open pandora's box again.

I suppose you could make your own cable...

[Slipped_Disk]

... but then you'd probably wind up in jail for DMCA Violations anyway.

So much for innovation and advancement.

Re:I suppose you could make your own cable...

[Anonymous Coward]

Depends on what you create the cable for.

If you read the text of the DMCA (http://www.hrrc.org/H.R._2281-_final_text.pdf) you will find that section 1202, f, 1 and 2 to be informative.

Re:I suppose you could make your own cable...

[gmack]

Nah customs is just being it's petty anal self.

He would be better off just hiring a customs broker to make the problem go away. It's $100 but that tends to be the only way I've gotten things through customs sometimes.

You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[3141]

What difference is there between the function of a Dreamcast Coders' Cable and that of a floppy disk? Both can be used for transferring both legal and illegal material. It seems somewhat wrong that customs should assume that you're going to use something illegally, especially when the primary use is perfectly legal.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[micromoog]

especially when the primary use is perfectly legal

That's just it - the actual primary use is (assumed to be) copyright violation. The stated purpose in the documentation of the cable is another thing; they're going by the percieved actual usage.

The assumption is that this legitimate educational purpose is in the extreme minority of cases.

If the "stated legal usage" were all that mattered, Napster would still be around.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[gTsiros]

Your thought is very interesting. Not particularly new, you have to admit, tho. But still, one has got to keep it in mind that things can't be banned if they have multiple uses.

A knife can kill. A knife can also harm unintentionaly. But its primary use is preparing food. Now, if you see a 15" knife, in the hands of a frothing racist, that's a different thing. but 99.999% of the time, it is in our hands (implied: we are not frothing racists), preparing food.

Same with guns. Personaly, i like target practice (paper. not ducks. why kill ducks?). More than that, target practice is much more enjoyable with real weapons. I'd be an unhappy if i either had to pay thru the nose to get a gun and licence or if i wasn't able at all.

pretty much like if you ban violent videogames crime rates won't drop, banning cables won't stop pirates. It just gives then more fuel.

Anyway, just some thoughts...

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[donglekey]

I say who gives a shit about what something's ambiguous primary use is. The act is illegal not materials. If I want to use a bong to try and invent cold fusion I should have the right to.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[MaxVlast]

As long as it's a tobacco bong, you're okay.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[maddman75]

If I want to use a bong to try and invent cold fusion I should have the right to.

I'm pretty sure that's what those original cold fusion scientists were using back in the 80s. :)

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[mrseth]

Furthermore, even a frothing racist needs to eat. Man cannot live on hate alone. So I am sure many a frothing racist has knives in their kitchen that they actually use to prepare food and they are not neccessarily out murdering those they hate every night.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[PenguiN42]

"Remember, all our products at Smokey Hash's Get-High Stoner Shop are for tobacco and cold fusion developmental use only!"

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's what Macromedia did.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[burnin1965]

Floppy disks are nothing, if serial cables are a crime then its high time we shutdown all the elementary schools and jailed all the teachers. After all, it all boils down to reading and writing being the basic tools of copyright infringement.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[gTsiros]

Someone who uses a 15" blade for cooking purposes is, at least, crazy in my book.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[geggibus]

hmm i think the "actual primary use" for large hard disks is copyright violation... ;)

/K

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Anonymous Coward]

And you can. "Bongs" or water-pipes can be purchased at most smoke/skate shops around.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Vegan Pagan]

How about using a gun to invent cold fusion?

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Sj0]

What?! You guys don't store gigabytes and gigabytes of C code on your hard drives?

I'm so disillusioned now.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Sj0]

You forgot the thrid -- the most dangerous: Arithmatic. People say it'll be used for "science", and "physics", and "the good of mankind", but we all know that the only use of Mathematics and Logic is breaking copyright protection schemes!

satire is fun, guy!

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Zigurd]

Dexter Russell knives only go up to 14" (unless you count the 16" pizza knife - but that has a handle at both ends, so it clearly has a "peaceful" purpose). Therefore anyone wanting a 15 INCH KNIFE must be a terrorist or militia member intending to overthrow the lawfully constituted government and its agents. Your apron is probably in camoflage pattern.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[delcielo]

This is obviously a mistake. Somebody just doesn't actually understand it. The cable is obviously legitimate and legal.

I doubt that this is any real personal attack from the DMCA nuts. It's a mistake of the bureaucracy that will linger and take forever to sort out.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[rhost89]

So all those Japanese sushi chefs are crazy now??

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Anonymous Coward]

We aren't dealing with a law enforcement agency here. It's the border guards. They have pretty much absolute power over things at the border.

If a border guard looks at a lapel pin you have on and says "That might be used to attack someone with" they can force you to leave it behind. If you are American, they can't deny you entry (they might put you under some sort of citizens or other kind of arrest) but that's pretty much the only thing they can't do, and it's not a legal issue at all.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Anonymous Coward]

Well actually they do sell bongs here in southern california. Guess what, they are legal whatever weed plants etc are displayed on the outside of them, they're legal. But if I wanted one of these dreamcast cables the law would be a different story.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Eythian]

I want to use a bong to try and invent cold fusion I should have the right to.

Here in New Zealand you won't be allowed to. You would have to use your 'flower and incense holder' instead.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[MrPerfekt]

So remind me why cd burners are considered even remotely legal by customs since they're going by this methodoligy?

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Cryptnotic]

It's not though. The people who pirate Dreamcast games don't bother ripping the games themselves, they download copied .iso images from other people. Someone somewhere presumably used a cable (either the Lik-Sang one, or the custom one that you can make for yourself for about $20 in parts) custom boot-disc with a program to read a GD-ROM and dump the data to another computer. Then via the internet and CD-R's, you can get that .iso image anywhere you want.

If, however, you want to have a boot-disc that will read code from the serial port and execute it, then you need a cable like this.

So to download games from the internet, record them to CD-R, and play them on your Dreamcast, you don't need anything but a CD-R drive and an internet connection. However, to get your own personal code to run on the DC without burning a CD-R each time you make a bug-fix, then you need something like this cable.

Cryptnotic

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[Anonymous Coward]

The Supreme Court ruled in the Betamax case that copyright holders do not have the right to ban a technology with a significant legitimate use, just because it may also be used for illegal purposes.

The court who ruled in the Napster case tried to chip away at the Supreme Court's Betamax decision, by saying that since Napster was running an active service, that made the Betamax rule inapplicable. Napster's own marketing may not have helped.

Even if the Napster rule survives higher court scrutiny, it sounds like this serial cable falls more into the category of a product (protected under both the Betamax and Napster analyses) than the category of a service.

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[mpe]

That's just it - the actual primary use is (assumed to be) copyright violation.

By that standard you can claim that the "actual primary use" of any tool is to preform illegal acts. It's a completly subjective term.
Maybe the "actual primary use" of pretzels is attempted murder of heads of state...

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[mpe]

You forgot the thrid -- the most dangerous: Arithmatic. People say it'll be used for "science", and "physics", and "the good of mankind", but we all know that the only use of Mathematics and Logic is breaking copyright protection schemes!

Best also ban chemistry and physics. Since with those people could both build bombs and work out the best place to put them...

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[cyber-vandal]

At least slightly deranged, judging by my very infrequent visits to Japanese restaurants ;-)

Re:You'd better not try and import floppy disks

[geggibus]

Yes.. C-code compiled into .mpg....

/K

If you outlaw serial cables...

[Anonymous Coward]

only the criminals will have serial cables.

Outrageous!

[morbid]

This is and absolutely outrageous state of affairs. The USA is becoming a police state. I thought it was supposed to be a paragon of virtue and freedom by which all other nations should measure themselves?
As more cases like this arise and more people complain, the DMCA will eventually be seen for what it is, even by those ignorant or greedy fools who supported it.
It is complete madness and it will surely be wiped from the statute books.

Re:Outrageous!

[hypergreatthing]

>The USA is becoming a police state.
Wake up, rub yer eyes and smell the coffee, this is a police state. Maybe it hasn't affected you yet, but rest assured, it sure as hell will.

Re:Outrageous!

[morbid]

>Wake up, rub yer eyes and smell the coffee, this is a police state. Maybe it hasn't affected you yet, but rest assured, it sure as hell will.

It sure as hell will if Tony Blair copies ol' W.

Re:Outrageous!

[joshsisk]

Unlike the UK (or even France), who ban movies and dvds for "offensive" content. Or Canada which halts the import of "offensive" comic books and magazines at the border...

Most problems like this stem from customs officials who aren't knowledgable about a topic, who get paid small wages, being responsible for decisions of what gets to cross.

It's a problem, to be sure. But "police state"? C'mon.

Re:Outrageous!

[morbid]

No, I disagree. It's definitely heading towards being a surveilance/police state, as is the UK.
They're talking about centrally-monitored CCTV in your house "for safety and to deter criminals"

Re:Outrageous!

[DarkZero]

Hey, if you don't like it, why don't you go out, get a license to protest, make sure you aren't annoying anyone, make sure you're not on private property, make sure you don't have any kind of passive defense items on you (gas masks, bandanas), and fucking protest about it?! I'm so sick of these lazy assholes that think that America is so horrible, but will never get off their ass to invoke their right to politely ask the government if they can protest about it. As long as they don't mind, of course.

::snicker::

Re:Outrageous!

[ariux]

They're talking about centrally-monitored CCTV in your house "for safety and to deter criminals"

I think that's a few steps beyond how it is here.

Still, you'd better fight it, civilly. Orwell's logic doesn't decay with age.

Not a normal Serial Cable

[CyberHippy]

According to the article, it's a proprietory cable that works the same as Serial but has a different connector.

I don't get how this cable is a copyright breach, though - he should certainly appeal and I'd like to see what happens!

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[Fizzlewhiff]

I don't get how this cable is a copyright breach, though

If the cable has a proprietary interface that Sega holds a patent for and this company in Hong Kong is making them without a license then it is clearly a violation.

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[SilLumTao]

If the cable has a proprietary interface that Sega holds a patent for and this company in Hong Kong is making them without a license then it is clearly a violation.

Is "proprietary interface" an oxymoron?

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[ftobin]

I don't get how this cable is a copyright breach, though

If the cable has a proprietary interface that Sega holds a patent for and this company in Hong Kong is making them without a license then it is clearly a violation.

You have clearly not answered the question. What was asked was where there is a copyright violation. Copyright has nothing to do with patents, except that the whole concept is muddled together under the vague idea of intellectual property.

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[wolf-]

Then it would be a patent violation, not a copyright violation.

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[MobileC]

The cable does not have an interface.
It has a pair of plugs connected by wires.
If Sega hold a patent for the _connecter_ then there may be grounds.

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[Anonymous Coward]

Sega does hold such a patent.

People here are so lame sometimes.

Re:Not a normal Serial Cable

[Fizzlewhiff]

You have clearly not answered the question. What was asked was where there is a copyright violation. Copyright has nothing to do with patents, except that the whole concept is muddled together under the vague idea of intellectual property.

Well perhaps I am just as clueless as the customs agent who stopped the shipment. Forgetting the patent issue (which was pure speculation on my part) is it possible (more speculation on my part) that perhaps the serial cable with its funky connector could have been used in the past as a great copy protection circumvention device ala connecting it to a terminal for remote debugging? This would land it in that category. Now considering this is the case then doesn't every debugging tool allow a person to do the same? With NuMega's SoftIce I can trace a running program and circumvent copy protection. Those of us who are against the DMCA could easily report this to the authorities and watch NuMega developer get tossed into jail. While we're at it we can do the same for anyone who makes or sells PCI video cards. Everyone knows all good PC's use AGP video cards. And everyone knows the only reason for a PCI card is to use a second monitor for cracking copy protection during runtime. More people arrested here. In the investigation the Feds will raid all the companies that have purchased SoftIce and PCI cards. Thousands upon thousands of people will be hauled off to jail. Tech companies will fold. And in the end those who passed the DMCA will be tried as terrorists for writing such a law.

Customs Official or UPS?

[jmoloug1]

It's not clear to me, did UPS internally flag this as a customs violation or did the the US Customs Agency do it? Does anyone out there know how this works? If it was US Customs, then it would seem to me that there would have to be an official appeal mechanism in place. However, if UPS did it internally, that would explain why they don't offer an appeal and why they won't give out info on who to contact.

I had a similar problem with my RoadRunner account a few years ago. The local sysadmin decided that a file I posted to a newsgroup was a copyright violation and cancelled my service. In fact, the file I posted was not copyright protected, but RR refused to hear my appeal and just ignored me.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[Microsoft Shill]

Read the guy's web page, jackass. He expressly states that US Customs told him he has 90 days to appeal, and that UPS appears to be giving him the runaround....

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MindStalker]

No, US Customs regulations told him he should have 90 days. All the can really find out, is that the UPS guy basically said, The US customs office regected it, and we won't give you info on it so you can appeal it. It highly likly that the US Customs office hasn't even seen it, therefor UPS doesn't have any info to give and they are hiding behind that excuse.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

As much as I hate them, that's exactly what Lawyers are for. Most of the time you don't even have to have one, just the threat of talking to one is usually enough to get their attention and try to work things out with you.

Also, filing a complaint with your states Better Business Bureu is surprisingly effective, and can usually be done online.

If you really want to be a dick, sue them in small claims court naming the President, CEO, and local sysadmin as defendents. In CA lawyers aren't allowed in small claims court, and if you don't show up you automatically lose.

It's probably a little late now to do any of these, but worth filing away for future consideration.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[pa-guy]

As much as I hate them, that's exactly what Lawyers are for.

It's because of lawyers that we have shit like this happening, not the other way around.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[Artagel]

Well, suing in small claims court isn't a remedy. Who are you going to sue? UPS? They did what the customs service ordered them to do. Sue the customs service? The small claims court does not have jurisdiction over the U.S. government.

Give it up. It is just a cable. If you really need one, make one.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's because of corporations, who bought legislators to pass the DMCA. True, many legislators are also lawyers, but they don't have to be.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

Did you bother to read the post I was replying to? I was suggesting remedies to his particular situation, which was quite different than the one detailed in the article, and really linked only by the DMCA. In the particular situation I was responding to small claims would be a very realistic remedy, and assuming small claims works the same where he lives as it does where I do, far preferable to a "real" court as an average citizen has a better chance of prevailing.

In the broader sense, yes it is just a cable, and it could certainly be made if one could acquire the Sega serial connector, and that would certainly be the best solution from a purely utilitarian viewpoint. However, it also avoids an excellent opportunity to contest a bad law which is as yet untested in court, and which will continue to be used to repress legitimate research and learning until successfuly contested.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

It's because of lawyers that we have shit like this happeningI agree, which is why I hate them. But, it is only through lawyers that the situation will be remedied. That's the way the system works.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[martyn s]

First of all, the better business bureau is completely unaffiliated with the government. They approve companies that pay them a fee, even when they have 30+ complaints against them. In dallas they charge 12 dollars to file a complaint. They're taking it in from both ends. Do a google usenet archive search for the terms "don't trust the better business bureau"

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[Anonymous Coward]

which will continue to be used to repress legitimate research and learning

*snort*

Yeah. I imagine the guy who's using it for educational purposes is as pure as the driven snow. That's why he ordered a large mass of these cables instead of just hacking open all the Dreamcast machines and wiring in a hardcoded cable. Because god knows you don't want those students seeing the inside of the machine!!

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[Artagel]

Mea Culpa.

For the Roadrunner situation, it can be a remedy. Mind you, in most small claims courts all you can get is cash (no order to take customer back). Probably a refund for the month that you got kicked out and your small claims filing fee.

Courts are for things more substantial than hurt feelings. Remember Bill Murray's advice to Puxatawny Phil in Groundhog Day ... don't drive angry.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

I have filed complaints with the BBB in CA several times, for free, and have achieved excellent results. In CA the BBB cuts off or denies approval if there are 3 unresolved complaints on record. I'm sorry the Texas BBB sucks ass.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

Perhaps if you had read the article you would have realized that it was a Real-Time Systems Programming (software, not hardware) Class (they probably need a cable for each student, or at minimum one for each DreamCast).

Oh, and the word you're looking for is "hardwired", not "hardcoded". Hardwiring means soldering, which is an inappropriate requirement in a software class. Hardcoding means programming the firmware, which is what they need the cable for!

And apparently the EFF and Wired think the guy is legit, which you would also know had you bothered to read the article!

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

That's why I said "if you want to be a dick". It likely wouldn't get him his service back, but would probably pay for the things you listed as well as any setup costs for new service and/or other fees he may he may have been charged by RR as a result (like fees for early termination of his service contract, for example. I'm not really familiar with RR). Mostly, though, it would be really annoying to everyone he listed in the suit, and , for me at least, that would be a satisfying retribution even if I lost. People who make a lot of money really hate being bothered for such pidly amounts. :-)

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[base3]

If only more people realized that, and didn't just roll over, this world would be a hell of a lot better of a place. Joe and Jane Everybody seem amazed when told what they can accomplish often by just being a squeaky wheel and a pain in the ass to people with power.

Re:Customs Official or UPS?

[MrResistor]

Agreed.

It's the same thing with voting. A lot of people don't vote because "one vote doesn't matter" and "it's all controlled by money". My answer to that is "what if everyone who felt that way voted?".

We've become a nation of whiners, always complaining about how the government's corrupt and The Man is keeping us down. The mechanisms exist for any US citizen to achieve just about anything they are willing to work for. All it takes is time and effort to learn the system.

Great, but how about....

[wholesomegrits]

This seems to be a clear case of the DMCA abridging a perfectly valid educational use of a perfectly legal piece of hardware."

Let's be honest here -- how much bitching and moaning is going to go on about the DMCA? Instead of pissing and crying about it, fucking do something. Doing something ISN'T ranting the same old shit to a chorus of believers.

And let's be clear, this is both a troll and flamebait. I'm serious. This bullshit is getting old, and maybe its time people step up to the plate instead of yelling from the upper deck. If you've been fucked by the DMCA, Slashdot is the LAST place to go.

Re:Great, but how about....

[Perl-Pusher]

So what do you think he should do? Buy a gun? The courts aren't working so what recourse does a person have? The only real way to change it is to bribe a sufficient number of congressmen to repeal it. Or bitch about it so loud and long that it starts to become a campaign issue. All our lawmakers really care about are votes & money. How much money do you think it took to put this law on the books? It will take alot of angry voters in many states to counteract that.


What you know, no anti Microsoft rhetoric.........

Re:Great, but how about....

[MindStalker]

The guy stated that he's already talked to the EFF, and the EFF has done A LOT to fight the DMCA, and many people have given them a lot of money. But getting laws overturned (unless your a huge corperation) is a long and difficult process.

Re:Great, but how about....

[Anonymous Coward]

Do something? I've done something. $70 to EFF. Anything else I can help you with?

Re:Great, but how about....

[Yakko]

I find your post quite hypocritical. You tell us to "fucking do something" instead of bitch and moan. . .

Yet your post is deviod of any action.

I'd do what I've always done -- use the web to search for a solution, and make my own cable.

Re:Great, but how about....

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anybody come up with a creative way of anonymously costing organizations like the EFF money? Something like collect calls, ordering stuff they can't return in their name, etc.

It would be usable against more than the EFF, although those are the sanctimonious prigs who I personally am tired of reading people preach about here.

Re:Great, but how about....

[wholesomegrits]

No, my post is ironic...

How silly

[speculums]

These groups are restricting access to mostly harmless items, but something like a gun, which has few non-harmful uses, (and I'm not anti-gun) can be owned by just about anyone. Fortunately, the battle in this country is more over access to entertainment than to food or medicine. At least for now.
--

Re:How silly

[ichimunki]

Access to entertainment? When gene and medicine patents promise to keep biotech corps in double digit profits for years to come, while medical care expenses for the average citizen continue to go through the roof?

Access to entertainment? When only ten major corporations own nearly the full spectrum of visible, audible, and legible media for informational purposes as well as amusement?

Access to entertainment? When increasingly patented "technologies" are being used to generate our food supply, from medications for animals, to fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, when the seeds themselves have become "intellectual property"?

Access to entertainment? When the government provides for arrest and confiscation in matters surrounding nothing more significant that copying stuff without permission?

Access to entertainment? When the government itself invests heavily in technology "licensed" from firms more willing to rely on tech-secret laws (i.e. DMCA) to keep problems under wraps than they are to truly eliminate security issues on their own? When national security depends on this technology?

At least for now? It's already the case that these laws cause "real" harm to society, and hold the potential for a lot more damage to be done.

Re:How silly

[Anonymous Coward]

Access to medicine? How about the thousands of people dead in Brazil because American companies are using their patents to prevent them using anti-AIDS vaccines?

Re:How silly

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod this guy up.

Patents can do more harm than good. Some 3rd world countries are breaking patents when it comes to manufacturing drugs for aids. Should we lock up the dying for breaking the law?

The same laws that can annoy can kill.

Re:How silly

[Anonymous Coward]

AIDS is an almost entirely preventable disease. Well over 98% of the people infected by AIDS could have prevented it by slight modifications in their behavior.

Nobody owes them their life back for making stupid mistakes in their lifestyle choices.

No. You do NOT need to use a condom when practicing ordinary sex to prevent AIDS. Just have nothing to do with people who practice unprotected anal sex.

If s/he is an easy lay, it by definition means s/he is a high risk candidate.

All of this gets shouted down by the people who profess 'free love' and can't stand the idea that their orgy has killed them and their friends.

Re:How silly

[Pussy Is Money]

What a load of crock.

Re:How silly

[Cryptnotic]

You obviously didnt see that Simpson's episode where Homer gets a handgun and uses it for all kinds of things around the house... opening beer bottles, turning off lights, making holes in walls, etc.

Cryptnotic

No ...

[pb]

This is a case of customs intercepting what they perceive to be illegal (mod-chips and whatnot); however, it's disturbing that they don't know or check what the merchandise is, and that they do this under the DMCA, the most far-reaching and untried piece of crappy legislation since the CDA.

However, it might work to everyone's advantage if you pursue this; I would love to see the DMCA overturned, and I'm sure the EFF would too. Therefore, I'm sure many people would be happy to contribute time, effort, or money if you have a case and can pursue it. (it's hard to sue the gov't; I wonder why ...)

Re:No ...

[Skinny Rav]

I know it's offtopic, but...

it's hard to sue the gov't; I wonder why ...

Fortunately in Europe it is possible. We have this Strasbourg Tribunal or whatever it is called and if you feel oppressed by the goverment - you can sue it. They have quite strict rules (i.e. you have to try first all possible official ways in your country to get your problem solved) and I don't know what is the effect of winning the case - but for sure it is possible.

I just wonder if they would accept a reason: "I couldn't bring a serial cable to my country".

Anyway, for now luckily we don't have DMCA :-)

Raf

What a wonderful world.

[selectspec]

They let Richard Reed onto an airplane, but they take away your serial cable.

Re:What a wonderful world.

[Anonymous Coward]

The French let him on...

Re:What a wonderful world.

[Lemmy Caution]

Of course, those are different "theys." The "they" that let Richard Reed on the plane was airline security at the point of departure. Whether he was to be allowed into the country after he landed is up to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. And whether to allow his stuff in, and how much he'll have to pay as a tarriff, is up to Customs, also at the point of entry into the country (rather than the point of departure) who would, presumably, have taken away his Dreamcast serial cable.

Re:What a wonderful world.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, now if only it was Reed Richards! Where are all the superheroes when you need them? Especially the brainy ones!

Re:What a wonderful world.

[zangdesign]

That was the French, you ninny. Probably did it on purpose, too, tha' snail-eatin #*@!tards because we export our fast-food restaurants.

Or possibly in revenge for "Le Hamburger".

Is that my karma-evaporation light blinking?

If this is true...

[joshjs]

...how is Cap'n Crunch going to watch The Daily Show!?

UPS blocking the appeal?

[achbed]

Can UPS block the appeals process by not giving out the name of the port director? This makes an appeal impossible, because the appeal has to be filed with that person. I would think that UPS could be held liable for something here, since they are essentially blocking a citizen's right to an appeal.

As for the customs rules mentioned, if it was "piratical" it should be siezed and held by customs, not returned to the sender. Something sounds extremely fishy here.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[the phantom]

The name of the port director responsible should be available under the Freedom of Information Act. Very few government documents cannot be acessed, basically only military secrets and archaeological site reports.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[azizlumiere]

Just because I am curious,

Why can't you access archaeological site reports ?

I know why you can't access military secrets, it's obvious. But what the dark secret of archaeological site reports ?

Don't flame me, educate me. Thanks.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[Sebastopol]

The name of the port director responsible should be available under the Freedom of Information Act [cornell.edu]. Very few government documents cannot be acessed, basically only military secrets and archaeological site reports.

Ronald Reagan effectively repealed these rights under EO12356.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[Tenebrious1]

Because they hold deep dark secrets like the origins of the Illuminati and the Rosicrucians and their secret plans to take over the world (which they've done already, it just tells how they were going to do it in the planning stages).

I suppose though the goverment will say it's to protect the site from "tomb raiders". There'll tell you about the problems in the Central Americas with tomb raiders looting everything as soon as the archy team turns their backs. But don't you believe it.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[lizrd]

This is entirely conjecture but I suspect the reason is to prevent theft of artifacts from dig sites.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't you access archaeological site reports ?

If people had access to this, they would discover just how flimsy the evidence supporting the Theory of Evolution really is. Ask yourself why only members of the elite "archaeological fold" have access to the original contents of discoveries, and why nobody else can verify these contents, much less run their own radioisotope dating tests on them. Revealing these kinds of secrets threatens to show that the last half century of history education in this country has been from highly fabricated materials.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[Anonymous Coward]

`cause they got the Ark of the Covenant, The Golden Fleece, The Holy Grail, Hitler's left nut and a bunch of UFO parts locked up in the Pentagon basement and don't want evidence leaking out...

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[the phantom]

Basically, there is a great deal of fear among archaeologists (myself included) that sites with well published locations will become victim to looting or "pot hunting." This all relates to the National Historic Preservation Act and the Archaeological Resource Protection Act. It was deemed more important to protect such resources than to diclose to potential criminals where they might be able to dig up a few artifacts and make a quick buck.

However, just because archaeologist don't need to disclose such information doesn't mean that such information is not ever released. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is currently working of a project to mark and interperate many of the sites along the Pony Express Trail (yes, these are considered archaeological sites: they are older than 50 years and of great significance to US history). The Park Service was organized in large part to disseminate such information, take Chaco Canyon, Hovenweep or Mesa Verdi for examples.

Interestingly enough, this represents about a 270 degree turn around in the last 100 years. Oringinally, federally employed archaeologists were budgeted as "recreation." Their purpose was to hand out maps to tourists so that they could find the best places to collect projectile points (arrow heads). Through the 1950s and 1960s, conservation and an empirical approach to archaeology, rather than excavating for shiny objects, became much more important and the emphasis began to shift to the conservations of archaeological resources. In the early 1970s, Nixon (yes, Nixon) handed down an executive order that eventually became the basis for the National Historic Preservation Act.

From that time until very recently, most federally employed archaeologists have been very reluctant to give out any information at all, and that has been fine. However, some are now begining to realize that the only way to make people care about our shared heratige is to make that information available to the public, thus bringing us back to a point where more information is available, though still no maps showing the best places to loot :)

I hope that goes some way toward answering your question, though no doubt I have given you way more information than you really wanted.

Cheers.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[dhogaza]

Oh, the problems are real. Malheur Lake (one of the largest lakes in the Great Basin) rose about ten feet in the early 80s and in the ensuing years slowly dropped back to its normal level. The surrounding land is very flat, and wave erosion exposed artifacts previously buried in the silty soil.

This lake is part of one of the most significant wildlife refuges in the country. This is only important to make clear that it has always harbored abundant waterfowl, attracting Native American tribes from throughout the region.

Anyway, to make a long story short "pot-hunters" quickly showed up to exploit this new resource. "Pot-hunters" who show up with backhoes, large sifters, and other large-scale aids aren't amateurs, they're harvesting artifacts for illegal sale.

It's Native American heritage that is (literally) stolen, and our National heritage as well, when people poach artifacts on public lands. These lands belong to the citizenry, so stealing artifacts amounts to stealing from the citizenry.

At least legal mine patents result in a whopping $2.50/acre windfall for the taxpayer ($5.00/acre in some cases, and in all cases regardless of the mineral wealth underlying the land being sold).

Outright theft such as that practiced by professional sellers of illegal artifacts returns $0 to the taxpayer.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[Anonymous Coward]

The government sanctioned gravediggers are just as henious, maybe more so because they claim to be so high and mighty.

Two hundred years from now we may have x-ray methods of 'excavating' sites. However, there are all these hungry archaeologists out there today trying to keep their grant funding by digging up anything, anywhere they can find it, in the name of 'science.' They take the artifacts which have by fate been protected all these years and cram them into storage cabinets in steel and glass buildings.

That's just wonderful, you 'scientists'. When your methods have been discredited 200 years from now and it's clear you destroyed most of the infomation, maybe they'll put up a memorial in your (dis)honor. Keep applying for those grants, guys. Lord knows you don't want to leave academia and get a real job.

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[betis70]

You forgot the Antiquities Act of 1906 too ;-)

Re:UPS blocking the appeal?

[the phantom]

Of course... my bad. And I only use this information every day. Damn. Thought I had almost everything covered. Oh well.

Off topic

[dcocos]

I noticed the counter on the bottom of the guy's website. I think will be pretty cool to watch the number increase as the site gets slashdotted. It went up over 200 in the time it took me to read article and click reload.

How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[TheLoneCabbage]

Has the compnay you bought this from been flaged by Sony as a maker of pirated materials?

How did they know to stop and inspect your package?

If Sony flaged this company/product, you may have no recourse.

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[avm]

Since Sony doesn't make the DC, them tagging Lik-Sang as a purveyor of pirated materials. Though doubtless they have enough pull to do such a thing, they could care less if people mucked with Sega's stuff.

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[avm]

D'oh, that makes no sense. It was supposed to read:

Since Sony doesn't make the DC, it makes no sense for them to be tagging Lik-Sang as a purveyor of pirated materials (at least in this particular instance).

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony? Hello? What does Sony have to do with this?
And what does "flaged" mean?
And what is "contraban"?

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[TheLoneCabbage]

If this is how they do it, the DMCA would be a HUGE boon for forign manufacturers. Most forign companies are primarily going to be interested in the USA markets. Sony can shut some one out just by putting them on a list? Would such a company have any legal recourse? Could they sue in there own contries? Could they apeal to US courts? If so companies like Sony could do REAL damage to their emerging competition.

Companies like MS could even delclare forign products "piraticle" and have them banned.

Granted this is far-flung, but couldn't MS do the same thing by declaring Mandrake Gaming Eddition a "piraticle" product, since it interfaces with their API's without their permission?

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[TheLoneCabbage]

Sorry Sony=Sega

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, Sony's gonna be pissed that you're assigning them to Sega...

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[joshsisk]

Unless they also make PS gear, too. Then Sony could flag them. But I think he meant Sega anyway.

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[shftleft]

I just recently shipped some equipment internationally, and there are MANY forms that need to be filled out regarding the origin of the product and what it is used for. Customs probably flags words or product names for inspection under certain laws.

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[Anonymous Coward]

It might even be a DMCA violation!

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[powderfinger]

Let's get on thing straight shall we.

Too many of our friends across the pond are using the term "Could Care Less" when they really mean
"Couldn't Care Less". Giet it right! It's our language, give it some respect!

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[powderfinger]

OK, so I can't type! Sorry, but there is a point there somewhere!

Re:How does UPS know that this is contraban?

[mpe]

If this is how they do it, the DMCA would be a HUGE boon for forign manufacturers. Most forign companies are primarily going to be interested in the USA markets.

Except that the intention is to force the same laws on most of the rest of the planet in the name of "copyright harmonisation"/"globalisation"/whatever...

One problem

[PowerTroll 5000]

Is that they do not know your true intentions. They saw what was being imported, and thought some 1337 h4x0r was going to use it to copy Dreamcast software.

It's also not an ordinary, general-purpose serial cable. What separates it from an ordinary serial cable is the special end to plug into a Dreamcast. That might set off bells and whistles at customs as well.

Unfortunately, they must err on the side of caution.

Re:One problem

[jandrese]

s that they do not know your true intentions. They saw what was being imported, and thought some 1337 h4x0r was going to use it to copy Dreamcast software.

This has to be a troll. Are you suggeting they should disallow import of anything that could be used to break the law? Like Pencils that can be used to stab people?

Re:One problem

[PowerTroll 5000]

Sorry, not trolling here. One of my functions at work is receiving manager, and have worked a lot with UPS dealing with components that get stuck in Customs from time to time.

I was illustrating the knee-jerk reaction the authorities have lately concerning copyright violation.

And your analogy is poor, there is quite a difference between a specialized cable and a low-tech general-purpose instrument as a pencil.

Re:One problem

[mccalli]

Unfortunately, they must err on the side of caution.

With the guiding principle of law being innocent until proven guilty, they must do no such thing.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:One problem

[PowerTroll 5000]

And you have just illustrated the problem of copyright violation enforcement.

The notion of "copy-protected" CD's is another example. It pretty much assumes every consumer is a pirating thief.

Re:One problem

[GreyPoopon]

Unfortunately, they must err on the side of caution.

I'm sorry, but this is just a lame excuse. Following this line of thought, they had better hurry up and BAN importation and construction of WLAN cards. These clearly are a violation of the DMCA because they permit people to drive around in cars with laptops and tap into corporate networks to steal copyrighted and private materials. In fact, maybe they should just ban laptops and automobiles altogether.

The single biggest problem is that they provided *NO METHOD* for him to discuss the case with the person who made the decision to reject entry of his shipment. If there were even reasonable controls in place to make sure innocent people weren't harmed by this law, it might not draw such anger from. But the DMCA is probably one of the biggest reasons for campaign finance reforms outside of Enron and Microsoft. It clearly was not well thought out, and is an attempt to prevent potential crimes by eliminating the tools with which they are committed, at the obvious expense of legitimate use of those tools.

Re:One problem

[monkeydo]

Bzzt. You are only innocent until proven guilty in _criminal_court_ Your "guiding principle" has no bearing on anything else.

How do you think customs works? "I think this stuff is cocaine, but I don't have a search warrant so I can't test it, you know 4th ammendment and all. I guess we should just send it on its way!" Ha! When you ship something into or out of this country expect it to be opened, rifled through and if the Customs officer can't determine that it is permitted it will be held up.

I think this guy is getting the screw job from UPS, not USC, if it was Customs, he should get notice and instructions on how to appeal.

Re:One problem

[Alien Being]

Then you should be locked up right now just in case you decide to do something illegal.

Re:One problem

[Anonymous Coward]

your name is powertroll 5000 and you are not a troll?

Re:One problem

[mccalli]

How do you think customs works? "I think this stuff is cocaine, but I don't have a search warrant so I can't test it, you know 4th ammendment and all...

Different circumstance. In this case, there was no doubt about the goods - a serial cable for connecting to a Sega Dreamcast. No tests required. This cable has an entirely legal, innocent, and clearly stated use.

Cheers,
Ian

(PS: I don't know what your Fourth Amendment is, I'm in the UK).

Re:One problem

[Anonymous Coward]

> (PS: I don't know what your Fourth Amendment is, I'm in the UK).

Well then, where do you get off saying "With the guiding principle of law being innocent until proven guilty, they must do no such thing." as if there were only one kind of law to contend with?

Re:One problem

[mccalli]

Well then, where do you get off saying "With the guiding principle of law being innocent until proven guilty, they must do no such thing." as if there were only one kind of law to contend with?

Because the American legal system was based on the British one, which in turn was based on Habeas Corpus, literally "you should have the body". This requires a high standard of proof and innocent until proven guilty.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:One problem

[forgetful_ca]

IANAL (in fact IANAA), but to the best of my knowledge the principle of innocent until proven guilty is only true of criminal cases, not civil matters.

Re:One problem

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd be more sympathetic towards the "erring on the side of caution" argument if this were a matter of firearms or materials that could be used to construct nuclear weapons...

But it was a cable...oh wait, now I read your username...

-1, dump it

[wiredog]

This has already appeared on the Other Site.

Re:-1, dump it

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, amazing!

Re:-1, dump it

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you quit your whining? How about just shutting up instead of bitching constantly about something trivial?

What a dip shit.

Re:-1, dump it

[Anonymous Coward]

Voting on a story? You might not have noticed in your drugged up stupor, but this is not that Other Site

Moron.

Hrrm...

[bl1st3r]

Is anything allowed to be researched anymore? Is research even possible without somehow violating DMCA rights of some company? Almost everything is patented/copyrighted, so therefor, any type of reverse engineering would fall under that category... right?

Re:Hrrm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. Move to Norway. Do all the research you want, and some nice ice-climbing too. Even canoeing, base-jumping and skiing, if you're into that sort of thing.

Did I mention EULA's aren't valid there either?

Re:Hrrm...

[edrugtrader]

imagination is nothing more than items not heretofore combined..... so yes.

Re:Hrrm...

[Anonymous Coward]

IT WAS EXACTLY 100 years ago when Charles H. Duell said, "Everything that can be invented has been invented."

The thing is, the estimable Mr. Duell really should have known better. In 1899, he was commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office.

Big business owns all past, current and future inventions. Bow down, geeks!

Re:Hrrm...

[donutello]

I'll bite.

Yes, research is allowed. You are free to research any of your own creations. Feel free to investigate the laws of nature. Feel free to experiment to come up with different ways to travel. Feel free to write software, create art in original ways. None of that is illegal.

Patents have a limited lifetime. Feel free to improve on the methodology employed in the patent or to invent a totally new thing.

Trying to break into and reverse engineer someone elses invention is not research. Being able to copy and record songs someone else composed and performed is not art or creation.

Disclaimer: I have no idea what the article is about or whether the serial cable does indeed have a valid legal use or not. I just get annoyed by all the whiners on Slashdot who bitch and moan about their "rights" to other peoples creations.

Re:Hrrm...

[Anonymous Coward]

Disclaimer: I have no idea what the article is about or whether the serial cable does indeed have a valid legal use or not.

So you didn't read the article? And now you're flaming this guy? Umm who moderated you up?

Re:Hrrm...

[jgerman]

Disclaimer: I have no idea what the article is about or whether the serial cable does indeed have a valid legal use or not. I just get annoyed by all the whiners on Slashdot who bitch and moan about their "rights" to other peoples creations

Then don't post bullshit rhetoric. The primary use for that cable is for people who want to use the DC as a medium for their own creations. Which they have EVERY right to do since it's their DC. Has Sega made the cable, or produced enough broadband adapters we'd be using those instead. There is a huge difference between reverse engineering and steeling mp3's, don't even try to lump them into the same category.

Re:Hrrm...

[mpe]

Trying to break into and reverse engineer someone elses invention is not research. Being able to copy and record songs someone else composed and performed is not art or creation.

A lot of engineering is built on pre-existing technologies. Taking apart something and "hacking" it to do something new has a very long tradition.
Similarly in music a lot of "borrowing" and copying goes on. Even to the point that there is the specific term "cover version"....

How rediculous

[autopr0n]

btw, there's a k5 story about this for those who care.

This seems to be another UPS fuckup... According to the Customs dep, you're supposed to get 90 days to apeal these types of things, but UPS said there was "no way." that anything can be done.

Asside from that, I think I speak for everyone when I say I find this a little desturbing. I mean, I'm sure Lik Sang has a 'reputation'... but the things are just wires for god sake.

Re:How rediculous

[arkanes]

I have found UPS customer support to consistently be totally unhelpful about anything thats no on the list of options in front of them. If it's not on that list, then nothing can be done, and the list is REALLY short. They won't even bump you up. I'm considering filing a BBB report - the service is just awful.

Re:How rediculous

[afidel]

people who ship critical things internationally on any kind of regular basis know you never use ups or fedex, you use dhl. DHL will get it there no matter what (well not if it would cost a life but pretty damn close).

Re:How rediculous

[DarkZero]

Actually, as I posted on K5, it looks like this might actually be a case of direct discrimination against Lik Sang. They may be denying it because of where it CAME FROM, instead of what it IS, which certainly worries me, because I was about to order from Lik Sang.

DMCA is slow...

[powerlinekid]

I mean come on, this is so 2 years ago. They used to use these cables to get dumps of information off the dreamcast so they could copy the games. The current way is to pop the dreamcast g-cd (yamaho propetary format that holds 1 gig a disk, with 35 meg (approx) being readable in a cdrom and the rest unreadable for laser issues) into a dvd drive and download a program/driver that changes the way your dvd drive uses its laser to read the disk. From what I understand the new way, while very dangerous for your drive is a hell of alot faster than the 20+ hours that it used to take to make a dreamcast iso, especially when you're worried about it melting.

Re:DMCA is slow...

[Suppafly]

This new way you describe is a myth. Everyone knows that.. altho some people that aren't so bright have to learn the hardway when they attempt to flash the roms of there cdr and dvd drives and mess them up.

Re:DMCA is slow...

[powerlinekid]

Its very possible. The problem with reading the g-cd with a cdrom drive is that the intensity of the laser isn't high enough. However a DVD drive can comfortably go into that range. Basically it works roughly the same as custom cd readers such as ISOBuster, etc that use their own system to read in data from the disks and not do it through the OS.

Re:DMCA is slow...

[Anonymous Coward]

download a program/driver that changes the way your dvd drive uses its laser to read the disk

I challenge you, sirrah! Post a valid URL for information about this technique, or receive the moderation of -1, Misinformative.

Re:DMCA is slow...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is hogwash, and the same sort of speculation that's been going around for years about flashing drives with "magic firmware" and such. I'd find it difficult to believe that a software fix can overcome such a designed-in hardware limitation.

Until you post a link, nobody needs to believe a word of this.

Re:DMCA is slow...

[powerlinekid]

one link, kind of low detail but same idea

heres another from cnet: 2nd link

notice they're about the same group... so yeah i think its possible... practical with the dreamcast being $50? hell no... those babies are awesome... too bad about the lack of games recently though (drop hardware price... people buy more... cut off game supply, games dry up)

Re:DMCA is slow...

[jgerman]

That's funny, I've owned a cable for months, never copied a single game, that's not why I bought it. Hacking the DC is why I bought it, because it's fun and my skills get that much better playing with various architectures.

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[Psx29]

http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html

College course work on a game system?

[Aardvark99]

College course work on a game system? Is that right? Damn, we had to use a VAX ;(

Anyway, don't you need a license from Sony to develop software for the dreamcast? If you don't have one, how is wrong to restrict access to a tool that's only purpose is do development, even if its academic.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[Anonymous Coward]

why do you have to get Sony's permission to wirk on a Sega product? Sony isnt god or the king..

I say everyone flip off sony. and be sure to talk about how dishonorable sony is.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyway, don't you need a license from Sony to develop software for the dreamcast?

Man... no wonder the Dreamcast tanked.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[gorillasoft]

Anyway, don't you need a license from Sony to develop software for the dreamcast? If you don't have one, how is wrong to restrict access to a tool that's only purpose is do development, even if its academic.

No wonder the Dreamcast folded - you apparently need a license from Sony to develop software for it. Naturally, they denied all licenses so that Sega's product couldn't compete with the PS1/PS2.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[MindStalker]

Just cause everyone pronounces Sega, "Sony," nowadays, doesn't mean you need to spell it that way!

Re:College course work on a game system?

[gte910h]

Anyway, don't you need a license from Sony to develop software for the dreamcast? If you don't have one, how is wrong to restrict access to a tool that's only purpose is do development, even if its academic.

bzzt...WRONG!. You can't be prohibited from downloading software you wrote to a piece of hardware that you own, as long as you don't circumvent any encryption to do so. That is the use the guy has for the dreamcast.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[ethereal]

Heck, you can even circumvent encryption too as long as it's not encryption intended as part of a copy protection scheme.

Re:College course work on a game system?

[Anonymous Coward]

Haha, moderators on crack. "Funny", I say. :)

Re:College course work on a game system?

[Rares Marian]

You need a license to use the libraries designed by Sega to use on the DC. You sure the fuck do not need a license to make it do things from a low level any more than you need a license from Microsoft to develop programs for Linux on a PC.

The Dreamcast is a computer whether you like it or not. It's just that the user normally interacts with objects of the software, not the software itself, and certainly not directly with the hardware. Programming games for the DC is a special case no matter how much more common it is than low level generic programming for the DC is.

What Next?

[atathert]

Next, I would expect for Ethernet cables and hardware to be siezed, since that is mostly (for the home user anyways) used to download pirated MP3s and pron.

Re:What Next?

[AlgUSF]

Or even better yet, what about routers which help route pirated software, MP3s, and illegal pr0n from on computer to another.

Re:What Next?

[Anonymous Coward]

What NeXT?

NeXT was a company formed by Steve Jobes(Apple's CEO) to make affordable Alpha based workstations for college students. The company was bought out by microsoft, then Jobes went back to apple

-by-ee

hard to make?

[jonestor]

How hard are these cables to make?

Can you make your own?

Re:hard to make?

[Gizzmonic]

Yes, you can make your own. You just have to order a Dreamcast serial cable (used for networking games like Virtual On 2 and Ferrari F355 Challenge) and splice it together with a regular serial cable. You can get the DC serial cable from level six or Lik-Sang.

I myself ordered a "DC Coder's Cable" from Lik-Sang a few months ago, and had it shipped via airmail (USPS). It arrived without a problem. Anyway, the fact that SEGA would nail people for this is very strange, especially since the DC is all but dead and the serial cables are (mostly) used for legitimate purposes, by Dreamcast homebrew hackers.

I wonder if this thing was misidentified by customs as one of Lik-Sang's "Gameboy Advance Backup and Development system. Nintendo has always been more sensitive to piracy, and the GameBoy Advance seems like a big enough market to crack the whip on.

Re:hard to make?

[joshsisk]

I doubt Sega has the resources to pursue these sorts of cases at the moment. More likely the company is just listed on some UPS list as being a "company that supports piracy".

Reverse Engineering Copyright Violation

[jmoloug1]

I wonder why EFF wants to know if Sega approves of amateur development on the platform? Isn't that irrelevant? Reverse engineering is supposedly covered under Fair Use, right?

Right on!

[tunabomber]

And they should outlaw those pesky optical fbers for allowing people to get the digital data they payed for off of copy-protected CD's.

Also on Kuro5hin.org

[dreadpiratemark]

You can read and comment about DC Serial cables vs. DMCA here on /. or do the same thing with the existing thread at kuro5hin.org. I'm glad to see that he's working hard to get his story publicized!

Mark

too little, too late

[Redneck Genius]

The DC piracy scene has already come and gone. No one cares about pirating $15 games for an obselete console.



Way to keep on top of things!

This was a violation of procedure

[Fair Use Guy]

I recently conferred with an undergrad who was importing some obviously bootlegged software CDs from the Orient onto campus for resale. Customs intercepted a particularly large order at one point and held it on DMCA grounds. Here was the sequence of events:

• Order was seized and the recipient was notified
• The recipient was requested to either send the items back, or to sign an affadavit that the items were legal in this country
• The recipient signed the affadavit and the "affected parties", the publishers who had put the CDs on their Customs block list, had three (3) business days to contest the affadavit
• The publishers did nothing, and the shipment went through

The USPS tends to act more in accordance with the proper procedures, and the private shippers tend to discourage them to avoid the trouble and added costs. So if you're going to order something illegal from overseas, the Postal Service is usually the way to go.

/fug

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[Shadowin]

I want to know how these guys knew what was in the box? Have we reverted to Soviet style reading people's mail?

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[Ooblek]

They knew what was in the box because the US's outstanding military was on watch. Remember they use Gaydar to detect gays in the military before they do any damage to the morale of the already underpaid soliders? Well, they developed DMCAdar at Area 51 and have been putting it to good use. The great thing is that it is all object oriented since obviously Radar-Gaydar-DMCAdar. The next thing you know, CNN will be reporting that all gays are copyright violators (see previous attempt at UML diagram) and will be shipped to camp X-ray to hang out with Osama's boys. The men will hold them down while the women beat the crap out of them.

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[vtlidl]

The only problem with using the USPS is it could be considered mail fraud.

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[Fair Use Guy]

Any sort of "fraud" at all that involves interstate (or international) commerce falls under the federal mail fraud statutes, regardless of carrier. However, the Postal Inspectors do not assist in investigations that involve non-USPS carriers - you're dealing with the FBI in those cases. Typically the floor for federal mail fraud cases is a loss of about $10,000. On one hand, it's not hard to get "$10,000" worth of software (in which case the unofficial threshold is often higher), but it is somewhat hard to sell $10,000 of fake laptops on eBay before buyers catch on.

Fair Use of the Day:

AddWeb Website Promoter v2.11 :Gold: AWGE-FD734H2-724Q942
InWatch 95 release 1.0 :name/satan #/15547
Backup ASSISTANT v1.0 rev.2 :Type EUREKA in both boxes
SysLaunch 1.0 :Name/TKC/PC '97 #/1918-112267-3047-257
Ablaze Web Auto-Promotion v2.22 :256AATY55888
Map Maker Pro v2.1 :Name: djHD Company: DSi Reg: 3654dzpayYc1
Business Card Design Plus 32 v5 :name/Free Registered Version #/BCD5-N!PC97!-CAM1
MailAlert 1.0.9 :name/everyone S/N: 1453595157
ReportIt v5.X - Report/File printing :Name/REGISTERED #/12074
CatDisk +v9.00 :name: Maroon s/n: G445000QIR

/fug

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[Registered Coward v2]

International mail is supposed to have a customs decleration, stating what's inside.

My guess is UPS ties its computer information with US Customs and supplies manifests automatically. It's also possible that certain shippers are flagged as well.

Re:This was a violation of procedure

[mpe]

They knew what was in the box because the US's outstanding military was on watch. Remember they use Gaydar to detect gays in the military before they do any damage to the morale of the already underpaid soliders? Well, they developed DMCAdar at Area 51 and have been putting it to good use.

A lot of effort to cover up for an expensive air defence system, which utterly failed to cope with a real threat. I know that the parent was intended as humour, but it's crazy enough to be true...
Odd how the relatives of those killed in WTC2 and the Pentagon arn't asking some very pointed questions of the US government.

It's because of the company he ordered from...

[cliffiecee]

Go to the website he ordered his cable from: lik-sang.com. Right at the top is the "GameBoy Advance Development and "Backup" Unit (emphasis mine). The word "pirate" pops into my mind immediately, as I'm sure it did with whoever made this judgement. It's wrong, but I bet that's what happened.

you know what??? ......

[phoxix]

we should have "DMCA nite"

this would be a time in which we sit down with the lovely people on congress, and discuss all the things of life made illegal thanks to the DMCA

only then will they understand

the only reason they don't understand is because they DON'T have to deal with technology that could be effected by the DMCA. (well they get paid big $$ by corporate america too, let us not forget that as well.)

maybe ... just maybe ... after they've learned that the buttons on their shirts are illegal, will they change their minds about the DMCA

one last thing, doesn't the FBI use technology that could be considered illegal by the DMCA??
so does that mean they'll have to stop using it or something??

just my two foodstamps

Sunny

Re:you know what??? ......

[Anonymous Coward]

one last thing, doesn't the FBI use technology that could be considered illegal by the DMCA??
so does that mean they'll have to stop using it or something??

Under chapter 12, section 1202, paragraph 'e', law enforcement officials, and individuals acting for or in the interest of the government are not bound by section 1 (the section prohibiting anti-circumvention).

This reminds me...

[gTsiros]

...of this law while greece was under military goverment (which in the end was overthrown with the help of students). It goes pretty much like this:

No more than three people are allowed to be together, unless they are talking about football.

Somehow, i do not know exactly, this fits here.

What is being circumvented?

[perlfish]

DMCA is supposed to prevent us from circumventing copy controls. Is a serial interface with (I assume) a non-standard plug a legitimate copy-control that deserves federal protections?

Copyright

[Jugomugo]

Almost any literature, music, movie is usable in a classroom situation under US copyright law. I don't see why this wouldn't apply.

All you would have to do is prove that it is being used for an education purpose. Also if the project is done in a reletivly short amount of time, you can justify that the company could not respond to your request for permission, granting you the rights to use it until otherwise stated?

Not really sure if this would apply for this though. :-)

Cable vs. knife

[BlowCat]

Being neighter addict of games nor user of proprietory software, I would normally vote against articles involving so called "piracy" and game machines, but this article raises a very important issue. Should the customs decide which cables are allowed to be imported based on the probability that they will be used illegally? I strongly believe that the notion of "software piracy" is wrong, because the so called "pirates" don't kill or rob anyone - the worst thing they do is depriving artists of some artificial monopoly that the society grants them to stimulate their creativity.

Banning cables is even worse - it creates a notion of "pirates' tool", something tangible that can be used as a "weapon" by "bad guys" and should be kept out of the country.

Isn't it strange that I can import a knife but I cannot import a cable?

Re:Cable vs. knife

[TheMidget]

something tangible that can be used as a "weapon" by "bad guys" and should be kept out of the country.

Yeah, that's it! They were not concerned about piracy, but rather were afraid that this cable could be used by a serial murderer to strangle some poor and hapless customs officers! It's not a piracy tool, it's a dangerous weapon!

And do not forget: cables don't strangle people, people strangle people!

Re:Cable vs. knife

[Lonath]

Isn't it strange that I can import a knife but I cannot import a cable?

Well, if your priorities weren't so screwed up, you would notice that a knife can only be used to injure or kill a few people before the attacker gets caught. The victims probably won't be rich people, so they really aren't worth that much to the economy and society anyway. OTOH, a cable like this can be used to steal Copyrighted Digital Content, which can then be copied an infinite number of times, thereby causing an infinite loss to the economy.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[ethereal]

I guess if we're going to copy stories onto /. from k5, it makes sense that we'd copy the posts too :)

Re:Cable vs. knife

[jgerman]

HEHE mod this guy up, that's a good argument ad absurdium, comparing murder to copying games. Hehe, not to mention that most people use the cable to write their own software for it or d/l other peoples free creations.... oh the parent wasn't kidding was he.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[rehabdoll]

i wonder if cdr drives would be banned if they were to be released tomorrow for the fist time.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[i_am_nitrogen]

I want to know how you can use a serial cable illegally. The only use I can think of is development, and there's nothing illegal about Dreamcast development in your basement, so long as you aren't distributing a copyrighted IP.BIN. Serial cable is way too slow to transfer any Dreamcast game anyway. You'd have to have a BBA, which costs way too much.

OT: anyone know where I can get a Dreamcast LAN adapter? (The kind that doesn't work with most stuff, and comes with "Dream Passport." HIT-0300 model.)

Re:Cable vs. knife

[BlowCat]

You guessed it. But let's not copy other people's comments. Also all references to FP should be carefully removed - what is frontpage there is first post here.

Actually, I wanted to see the difference in the replies and moderation. K5 moderation is very tough, because everyone can moderate and the readers' expectations are higher. Not being a native English speaker, I was amazed how easy it was to get +5 Insightful on Slashdot. Not so on K5.

On the other hand, some replies on Slashdot are more informative because more people read the comment once it reaches +5.

Sorry for offtopic.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[Smallpond]

You're missing the point. The Customs service doesn't decide that the cable is infringing. Almost certainly, Sega told them to intercept shipments from the cable manufacturer. The DMCA is being used as a business tool by large companies to protect them from being nibbled by small companies who don't have clout.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[Lonath]

oh the parent wasn't kidding was he.

Are you saying that my dry sarcastic wit has gotten so dry that it is indistinguishable from a pro-IP troll?

Re:Cable vs. knife

[jgerman]

It's the medium. I'm certainly glad it was a joke, believe me if I'd have heard it in person I'd have loved it.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[base3]

If they were released at today's prices, they would be. They slipped under the music cartel's radar initially because they were expensive, it wasn't practial to extract audio at 1X (if at all), and there was no psychoacoustic compression like MP3.

Re:Cable vs. knife

[Pogue Mahone]

I want to know how you can use a serial cable illegally.

Well, you could use it to string up Sen. Hollings or one of the other "representatives" who support this
crap.

(Only kidding - death's too good for 'em)

playstation

[kz45]

US Customs has rejected entry of a PCSega Dreamcast serial cable into the US, supposedly due to copyright violations

A similar experience happened to me when I tried to get one of those Playstation boot CDs, that allows me to play imports. It took me forever to find a company that would ship to the states.

link to serial cable

[bluelarva]

Here is link to the serial cable he is referring to. It looks harmless to me... Am I breaking DMCA by linking to it?

Re:link to serial cable

[Calacak]

No, but your obviously infringing on British Telecom's hyperlink patent!

Re:link to serial cable

[jcochran]

Looking at that link I see the following features listed:
1. Connect your DC console with your PC.
OK
2. Develop your own DC projects such as games, demos, etc.
OK
3. Upload already existing demos which can be downloaded from the Internet.
OK
4. Read memory card save datas and exchange them with friends.
Not OK

Number 4 looks like pirating and it's advertised as a product feature.

Re:link to serial cable

[Anonymous Coward]

Number 4 is not piracy -- it's talking about saved data (which is a record of the games YOU played), not the games themselves. Sega can't claim copyright on saved game data. Furthermore, IIRC, Sega actually allows and encourages exchange of saved game data via connecting two memory modules back to back. It's also possible to DL saved game data over the Dreamcast's modem, though I'm not sure if you can upload.

Re:link to serial cable

[GTRacer]

Are you trolling or have you never used a mem-card-based console before?

Interact's DexDrive...Interact's SharkPort...Blaze's Data XChanger thingy...Rocket's Cheat Factory...All these will allow you to exchange mem-card saves. Something you could do on any console if you have physical posession of both cards. But for the times you don't, these devices put a PC link in between and allow distant users to exchange info.

GTRacer
Copy controls suck. Territory lockouts suck.

Re:link to serial cable

[jcochran]

Nope, I'm not trolling. And you're correct, I haven't used a mem-card-based console before. Are you assuming that the customs official if he bothered to look up the web site wouldn't make the same mistake? Gee, here is a tool designed to read information stored internally to the console. Yep, sounds like piracy and I have got to stop it. Never mind that the decision was wrong, he made to call to support a bad law in the fashion he believed was right.

Re:link to serial cable

[Yakko]

In regards to #4... how is my reading my own game saves and hex-editing them constituting "pirating?"

If I want to cheat, it's a legal option for me to do so by altering the data on my VMU. I may be reading into it too much, but by your verbiage, things like Action Replay, Game Genie, etc... are also "illegal."

How is a serial cable in the Dreamcast different

[TrainedMonkey]

... from one in a PC? What I mean is, a serial cable is just a way to interface with a port under a certain specification (in this case a serial protocol). The fact that the Dreamcast has a serial connector indicates that its use is legal.
Why will anybody put a connector that you are NOT supposed to use??!! So now using the serial cable is illegal... does this make the use of the parallel port in my PC illegal? (If so, I am going to jail because I can't remember how many times I have used it ;)
Now seriously, the custom office does NOT know how the serial cable is going to be used, so they assumed that it was going to be used the "wrong" way. In that case very soon, custom should stop anybody ordering bricks from China (or somewhere else, for that matter), because killing people is illegal in the USA, and bricks can be used to kill people...

It is not just the DMCA: it is the whole idea, very popular these days in political talk, that if something can be used for harmful purposes, it needs to be banned inmediately because it will be used in that manner.

Other uses for your krad cable...

[JoshMKiV]

Lame response yes, all CD burners should be outlawed as well. But so everyone knows, it is not just a serial cable, it has the Dreamcast USB-looking end, a box with a chip in it, and a serial connection on the other end. It can also be used to rip data from the GD-ROM drive, allowing copies of Dreamcast games.

The reason it did not go through is that you bought it from LikSang. Make your own, it is simple enough.

Am I now of "a piratical nature"?

[medcalf]

My six-year old will be thrilled! Arrrh.

Re:Am I now of "a piratical nature"?

[ethereal]

Ya call that an anchor? Arrrrr.

What about Sega?

[ManicGiraffe]

Can you get Sega of America to intervene on your behalf? Seems to me they might like to know why a device for their developers is considered illegal and try to resolve it.

Re:What about Sega?

[jchristopher]

Can you get Sega of America to intervene on your behalf? Seems to me they might like to know why a device for their developers is considered illegal and try to resolve it.

Are you kidding? Sega is probably the person that told Customs to watch out for shipments from lik-sang.com in the first place!

What about senses

[Ashcrow]

Someday you will have to have licenses for all you senses and pay money to keep them valid. After all, we can't have people breaking agreements now can we?

When Will Fingers Be Declared Piracy Tools?

[uglyMood]

Remember when computers were all about expanding what's possible instead of restricting it? I'm getting goddamn sick and tired of beneficial technology being held hostage by a bunch of greedy assholes.

That explain the postal delay...

[jsse]

That'd be totally unrelated to this thread, but it matters to the case so please bear with me.

I live in Hong Kong and I found unexpected delay in postal services recently(around a year or so, even before 911). I do a lot of mails/packages back and forth US(has a lot of friends in US) and the time it takes seems to be lengthened to at least 2-3 times than normal. My X'mas present to one of my friend in US just arrive yesterday, but I shipped it before X'mas.

Until you bought it up I noticed that the time it took for computer equipment seems to be taking much longer. A friend of mine who was carrying a box of modems with cables was being strip-searched at the US custom.(he thought it's due to 911, but it's rather unusual to be detained 4 hours...)

I was wondering, does US customs pick on all packages from and to Hong Kong? I asked several ebay sellers they said it takes unusual long time to delivery goods to me.

Exactly how many time, money and resource US Government is spending on monitoring citizens' mails?

Anyone would kindly tell me?

P.S. to original poster, have you tried UPS, DHL or Fedex? Did they reject your goods like USPS?

Re:That explain the postal delay...

[Andrewkov]

Everything seems to be taking longer than usual now .. A friend of mine (Canadian) is a tech who repairs medical equipement. When he travels, he brings all kinds of tools, scopes, specialized electronic diagnostic equipement, etc. Getting this stuff through customs is a nightmare (from Canada to the US, or even just within Canada)... This started after 911, though.

Re:That explain the postal delay...

[d-e-w]

Even technical literature.

In November, I sent five copies (each) of a technical journal to two authors in Toronto via USPS. Usually, they take a week or so to arrive. They still have yet to receive the package sent in November, or the new package from January.

Re:That explain the postal delay...

[Quixote]

P.S. to original poster, have you tried UPS, DHL or Fedex? Did they reject your goods like USPS?
Read the article, Einstein. He was using UPS.

Re:That explain the postal delay...

[Andrewkov]

That sucks ... Can you send it electronically?

Re:That explain the postal delay...

[d-e-w]

They do have access to an electronic copy, fortunately. Our writers/researchers like the hard copy to pass onto bosses, collegues; and to put into their portfolio. Or just to throw onto a table in the lobby ...

HUMAN EYES DEEMED 'PIRATICAL' BY DMCA

[Anonymous Coward]

After all, you *can* memorize things using them as input devices....
;-)

damages

[www.sorehands.com]

I am going to disgree here. Besides pissing and moaning to congress, there is little to be done until there is a harm.

Look at the Felton suit, the court ruled that there was no harm, so they dismissed the case. Now, that someone has been harmed (not just threatened with harm), now he can get a lawyer involved and go after Sega.

Maybe he can get the school to talk the lawyer that handled the Felton case.

If I remember correctly, items of soley functional design (as opposed to artistic) cannot be copyrighted. So, the pinout or shape should not be copyrightable. Remember the Apple ][ clones? Some shipped them in without eproms to get around that.

Re:damages

[pythas]

Why the fuck would you sue Sega????????

They aren't involved in anyway, other than producing the Dreamcast hardware. Sue the US Government, sue UPS, sue ANYONE BUT SEGA.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. The fact that it got 4 points makes it more so.

Re:damages

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't "a chilling effect" count as harm?

Re:damages

[Anonymous Coward]

It can. Many of the defamation cases argue that it is a harm. But, in the Felton case, it was not. Probably because a lawsuit was never filed. Just threats were made.

What about this serial cable?

[bogusflow]

This is a somewhat related story. There is a hardware hacker in Czechoslovakia who makes serial cables that interface between the PC serial port and the serial port on a Commodore 64 disk drive or CPU. Methinks more than a few Slashdotters may have a cable from this guy. Anyway there are several programs floating around that allow you to use your PC as a C64 'hard drive' or to access the Commie disk drive from the PC, via this cable. You can also homebrew one yourself. With this setup you can download C64 game images to your PC and load them up on the old Commie. Given this story I imagine this guy could be shut out of the U.S., although AFAIK no copyright holders to the old 64 games have been coming out of the woodwork, demanding action.

Re:What about this serial cable?

[crankyspice]

Pedantic, no one is from Czechoslovakia anymore.
It's been almost a decade since that country split
into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It was in
a few papers. Maybe you heard about it. :)

Make your own coders cable!!

[radd0]

This is complete and utter hogwash. You may not be able to walk in to BestBuy and "hoarde them all" but you can definitely make your own. Marcus Comstedt has a very resourceful Dreamcast Programming site, which also documents how to build the DC to PC serial adapter ("DC coders cable") at: http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html As the victim of this so-called upholding of the DMCA has acknowledged on his own site, the DC broadband adapter would be the way to go, but is a much more expensive route. Happy coding... -r

Re:Make your own coders cable!!

[alech]

Not everybody is good with electronics.

I was happy that I could buy one here in the Netherlands without having to bother finding someone to build it for me (and you need parts for that too!) and no dump DMCA banning me from ordering one.

It's not about the inability to get such a cable, its about your right to buy a prebuilt one.

"MPAA representative 'totally shocked'"

[Chris Burke]

When MPAA PR representative Ima Weasel was told about this apparent restriction of legitimate educational use of a harmless device in the name of the DMCA, she replied that she was "totally fucking shocked".

"Seriously," she drawled, "we would have never guessed that, like, someone's rights would be impinged by the DMCA. You know, cus we aren't about that. If we'd have known stuff like this would happen, we'd have never lobbied for the damn law in the first place." Mrs. Weasel apparently had some sort of coughing fit, but when she recovered, she added in a strained voice: "Because you know, the MPAA is about protecting the people's rights. We would never get in the way of something like that knowingly, even if it meant making less money. Because... We love our customers!"

At this point she let out a cackle like the witch from Loony Toons, and rode off on her broom. One of her aides informed the interviewer that the MPAA had no further comments on the issue.

Recent Patent

[WillRobinson]

I have won a patent on actually using your brain. If I find anybody in the US who is using theirs, we will have your deported or destroyed.

Its obvious, the customs office doesent use theirs.

What are you doing?!

[quantaman]

CmdrTaco you just proposed and she said YES!!! What are you doing still at work?!? Go out and party!!!!!!

Re:What are you doing?!

[donglekey]

I second that, go out and have fun man!! Congratulations!!

Re:What are you doing?!

[Glorat]

Where are my mod points when I need them?! While +1 Funny, Mr. Taco, this is a +1 Insightful post. Take heed =P

Re:What are you doing?!

[TheTomcat]

yeah.. like he didn't cue this one up three days ago. (-:

Shipping Method

[shking]

Did you have Ross Rebagliati bringing the cables in for you?

Does anyone else wonder...

[rnturn]

...why, with so many other, more important things to be worrying about, the customs officials are watching for serial cables? Ever hear of priorities, Mr. Customs Man?

Jeez...

I worked at Sega...

[The Vulture]

...for John Byrd actually, up until February 2001, when Sega of Japan dropped the axe on the Sega of America Third-Party Developer Technical Support (DTS). I have contacted him about this article, and maybe he can say a few words (however, he does not work for Sega anymore, so I don't know what effect his words will have).

Truth be told, when we were at Sega, we were following the amateur programmers, and we knew that there was no way that we could stop them (not that the youthful hackers in us really wanted to). I don't know if this will help you any, but Sega of America actually ran a mailing list at one time for amateur VMU (Visual Memory Unit) programmers - this may be useful in establishing some credibility that Sega was encouraging development. Of course, then again, there was usually a difference between what SOA and SOJ wanted. :(

Although I do not know where the links are for making the cables, it is possible to do so (and I believe that somebody else pasted the link). The only catch is finding the Dreamcast serial port side. Rather than ordering from Hong Kong, you might want to see if you can find the Japanese ISDN cable, which is the real version of the cable you are looking for (I have one at home). I don't remember the part number, but I can look it up tonight. That and a null-modem adaptor, and you're in business.

Absolutely rediculous what is going on. I wonder when my homeland of Canada will begin to follow suit. :(

Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, and not Sega of America, Sega of Japan, John Byrd, or any other current or former Sega employee.

-- Joe

Re:I worked at Sega...

[Anonymous Coward]

actually you also need a RS232 to 3.3V CMOS converter...

I cheated and run a 5V part that I have at 3.3V. I checked the waveforms on a scope and it was perfect.

Re:Reverse Engineering Copyright Violation

[vidarh]

Yes, but if Sega approves then it makes the case even more ridiculous, and a powerful argument against the DMCA.

If US Customs is attempting to "protec" a companys interests via the DMCA by preventing import of a device that enables activity the company explicitly approve of, that should be a real eye opener for corporate friendly politicians.

Same thing happened to me

[nick_burns]

My shipment of 5000 black eye-patches was blocked because they were ruled "piratical."

capitalist property rights games

[dattaway]

hmmmm... a patent covering the serial transfer of data over a twisted pair of wires accompanied by control lines limiting bandwidth in a controlled fashion.

Sprinkled with enough multisyllabic buzzwords, the most obvious and time proven techniques can be novel.

Next: Tires

[Anonymous Coward]

I will just quietly sit back and wait the day when buy Perilli tires will be illegal simply because someone could possibly want to put a set of performance tires on their car so they (can pull off a bank heist || kidnap a neighbor || assasinate your favorite congressman) and drive that much faster away from the cops.

Either that or pencils. Heavens forbid I might use a pencil to transcribe a peice of copyrighted material.

While I'm on this rant, who in DC doesn't understand the idea of policing crime, not the potential to commit crime?! I have the potential to commit murder, and with people as stupid as our elected representatives (and the masses who elected them) I have plenty of motif and raw desire to actually commit murder.

What do you suggest? If we had the technology to completely reprogram my mind, my personality, my psyche, would you write into law that anyone who has knowledge of how to, and has the mental ability to commit any crime should be sentenced to reprogramming?

You think I'm taking this to an absurd extreme? You've crossed that line already, there is no extreme, this is the logical conclusion of the path you've chosen. If this item has the potential to aid in the infringement of copyrighted material, then it is contraband.

If this item has the potential to aid in *, then it is contraband.

Hack-A-Cable (Or Better Yet, Try Google First)

[UNIBLAB_PowerPC]

So dude waits a week or two ... and probably waited longer while they were actually being shipped to the US from Hong Kong ... but in that time, he could have utilized that DIY ethic and built his own cable (and any for classmates in a similar bind). When in doubt, go to Google.com and find what you need ... ten seconds and two clicks later, I found the same howto that radd0 mentions in the post above. Just like that. Little to no work involved.

I feel the pain of the DCMA nonsense, but lazy people who don't bother searching for another route to the finish line make my pooh soft ... especially when his CS department probably has a huge box of old cables, just waiting to be hacked (like my network cables at home, which were bastard non-standard jobs that were going to be tossed but I just added new connectors and saved quite a bit of dough).

Re:Hack-A-Cable (Or Better Yet, Try Google First)

[alech]

Have you read the description on Marcus' site?

His CS department most surely has not a bunch of DCNeoGeo link cables lying around!

Re:Hack-A-Cable (Or Better Yet, Try Google First)

[Gaijin42]

The point is not that he could get around it, the point is he shouldnt have to, because he bought the friggen cable to begin with.

I can make hamburgers real easy. Should that make me less annoyed when they make it illegal for me to buy one at McDonalds?

Broken record

[Anonymous Coward]

God I hate to sound redundant but...

We told you guys this would happen when the idiots started banning guns. "Guns hurt people," the fools would blather. Yes, if you're annoyed by what I'm saying, you're one of the fools who made this mess. Thanks, asshole.

Oddly enough, crime didn't go down. Rather, it got worse.

Next it was boxcutters, knives, razors, screwdrivers (had two of those in my PC bag confiscated in Miami last week). Teeny little PC screwdrivers, now regarded as a deadly weapon.

Yet criminals figure out another way.

Either we're going to have to put an end to this idiocy and get more of the population supporting the punishment of criminals, not inanimate objects, or we're going to keep going down the slope until the only people that have stuff are the governmental elite and those that can afford to pay them off for the priveledge.

Re:Broken record

[Caspuh]

Right on.

Re:Broken record

[cpt kangarooski]

Well, I was allowed to take my Visor on the plane, and it has a tiny screwdriver in it. I guess they expect that terrorists use WinCE.

Re:Broken record

[HalfFlat]

er, guns do hurt people. That and hunting are indeed their primary purposes.

Unsurprisingly there are fewer gun deaths per capita in those democracies where gun use is restricted.

Gun laws won't stop the sole loony with an illegally owned gun doing the rampage thing. But such loons aren't the ones responsible for the amazingly large number of people who get shot in the US every year.

However you may feel about gun control, comparing them to a device that may have application in unauthorized copying of software is ludicrous.

Re:Broken record

[arbitrary nickname]

Strangely, on my last plane trip, security weren't interested in my Visor, phone, or digi cam... but in the collection of around 16 minidiscs... Luckily the more senior security drone knew what they were....

Dave

Re:Broken record

[Anonymous Coward]

Gun laws won't stop the sole loony with an illegally owned gun doing the rampage thing. But such loons aren't the ones responsible for the amazingly large number of people who get shot in the US every year.


A lot of those deaths could be avoided if we had gun safety classes in schools.

We treat guns like 'mysterious forbidden objects', and then wonder why kids like to play with them....

We make guns illegal, so those who feel they need one can't legally get the safety training they should....

We make guns illegal. But criminals don't follow the law. So it's honest citizens who get killed....

Re:Broken record

[DarkZero]

However you may feel about gun control, comparing them to a device that may have application in unauthorized copying of software is ludicrous.

This is because you COMPLETELY missed the point of what he was saying. In this context, this serial cable and a gun definitely have a lot in common. They're both part of a general trend in American (Western?) society today toward banning the tool used in a crime, instead of just banning the crime and punishing the offenders. It started with guns, a tool that most people are in favor of banning, despite the fact that it has both legitimate and illegitimate uses. Now, in a time when anti-gun laws have been getting more and more strict in the US for over a decade, the prophesies that those "psycho gun nuts" made is coming true: Once a government starts blaming tools for crimes instead of just the people that commit them, no tool is safe, because almost any tool can be used for both good and evil. Screwdrivers can screw nails in... but they can also be used to stab someone or pry open a machine that's protected by copyrights. Box cutters can cut boxes open and be used for household cutting purposes... but they can also be used to stab people. Serial cables can be used for legitimate, legal communication between two electronic devices... but they can also be used to break copyrights, as well as strangle someone. Do you see where this is going? Guns can be used to kill an innocent baby, defend a family, shoot a convenience store clerk, hunt deer, and shoot an inanimate target ("target" as in the kind with a bull's eye on it). Personally, I don't think guns should be banned, but that's not the point of this post, nor the one you replied to. The point is whether or not we have to go as far as banning a tool, and thus banning both its legitimate and illegitimate uses, when misusing it is already a crime.

Re:Broken record

[clyons]

er, guns do hurt people. That and hunting are indeed their primary purposes.

Unsurprisingly there are fewer gun deaths per capita in those democracies where gun use is restricted.

Tell that to people and the police in the UK. Gun crime have skyrocketed since the UK banned firearms. Just look that This Story [news.independent.co.uk].

When you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have gun. You publically mandate unarmed victims.

Re:Broken record

[mpe]

This is because you COMPLETELY missed the point of what he was saying. In this context, this serial cable and a gun definitely have a lot in common. They're both part of a general trend in American (Western?) society today toward banning the tool used in a crime, instead of just banning the crime and punishing the offenders.

This method generally does not work. Instead the result is a black market where it may actually even be easier for criminals to get hold of them than before they were made illegal. Anyway criminals tend not to care much if the tools they use are legal or illegal.

It started with guns, a tool that most people are in favor of banning, despite the fact that it has both legitimate and illegitimate uses.

I'm not sure it did actually start with tools, it appears more an extension of the policy of "prohibition" from drugs to tools.

The point is whether or not we have to go as far as banning a tool, and thus banning both its legitimate and illegitimate uses, when misusing it is already a crime.

Very often the misuse has been a crime for a very long time.

Re:Broken record

[liquid_schwartz]

Where I live far more people are killed by offroading motorcycle and quad flips than by guns, lets ban those. Most gun related deaths already involve illegal acts (ie drug dealing & gangs) so to ban them is useless in these cases. I'm always amazed how many anti-gun folks have never even shot one. Kind of like a person who doesn't drink advocating prohibition as a solution for all. - Think for yourself

Over regulation

[JohnBE]

It's amazing. On one hand people get pissed off if Government interferes with business. On the other hand business doesn't get pissed off if the Government interferes with people. I thought over-regulation was a bad thing, or does that only apply to business?

Goodbye to Amercian technology

[Ice Tiger]

It is terrible to see this effect from the DMCA. Basically it is destroying technical education in the US. Long term this could be a very bad thing and just turn the US into a nation of consumers and not producers, which will eventually destroy the market that the DMCA backers are trying to protect.

Or I could be totally wrong.

Lik Sang

[alech]

From what I've read on the dcdev mailinglist, this rather seems to be a problem with Lik Sang, then with the cable itself.

Lik Sang stopped selling modchips to the US, Canada, Mexico and "other Latin american countries" as well...

So, for me it seems it is rather a problem of customs vs. Lik-Sang then a DMCA problem...

Quoting a mail from John Goggan which just arrived on the dcdev mailinglist:

Just so people know, here is the situation with Lik-Sang... Customs recently started checking ALL of Lik-Sang's shipments to the US (under the guise of trying to stop any NEO4s from coming in -- even though Lik-Sang immediately stopped shipping them when they were announced as being against the DMCA). They were denying coder's cables, gameboy wormlights, everything. Basically, it looks like they were too lazy to hand-check the packages and just refused almost all of them going from Lik-Sang into the US via UPS. They also did not inform Lik-Sang of this until 3 days after they started denying them -- so a bunch were refused without Lik-Sang's knowledge. They heard from an engineer in the US that was waiting for a USB connector sample from Lik-Sang that tried to call customs and explain that they parcel they had stopped had nothing to do with the DMCA. They told him that they are "CERTAIN that they know what kinds of goods that Lik-Sang are shipping." Bah. Idiots. Note that Lik-Sang has STILL not received their packages BACK yet. In any case, Lik-Sang has now worked out their issues with UPS and will begin shipping with them again very soon. Basically, it looks like UPS is doing all they can to help Lik-Sang get around custom's evil tactics now. heh. They have changed to EMS Speedpost temporarily for shipments to the USA, but said that UPS will be back as their primary shipping method for the USA by the end of the month (note that some of that delay is due to Lik-Sang moving to a new warehouse in HK -- not just the customs issues). Just wanted to clear that up. Some guys at Lik-Sang are friends of mine, so I asked them what was up -- and passed it along to you all.

Re:Lik Sang

[c4thy]

i got my gba flashkit last week by shipping ems speedpost. i think the whole issue was UPS found out that liksang would put "lowvalue" or "gift" on the pkgs to keep ppl from having to pay customs charges. UPS got word of this and now all the pkgs are hanging in customs. its obviously not an issue between liksang and customs because my pkg came through fine while a few of my friends pkgs shipped via UPS is still in customs.

Re:Lik Sang

[Anonymous Coward]

huh? They refused to ship me one a few months ago.

Re:Lik Sang

[c4thy]

i had first wanted ups to ship it and after the order was being processed for 4 days i emailed lik sang and they said "due to recent global events we are unable to send your package with UPS, if you would like to change to EMS SpeedPost shipping please respond", so i did, and got my pkg 4 days later

Must be illegal

[eaddict]

My company has the site blocked on the firewall so it HAS to be a Bad Thing(tm).

If you criminalize serial cables....

[Big_Ass_Spork]

only criminals will have serial cables.

Did they even check what it was?

[profesor]

My guess is that the company that he ordered the cables from ended up on a list of companies that ship illegal copies, so all packages shipped from that company into the US are blocked. I furhter guess they didn't even check what's in the box, only the shipper's address/name.

Re:Did they even check what it was?

[Anonymous Coward]

If UPS wants to help Lik-Sang get their packages into the US, couldn't they simply apply the concept of IP masquerading to their delivery system (ie: replace Lik-Sang's return address with their own)? Prolly illegal, though... most things are nowadays.

Privacy of the Mail?

[Rayonic]

I thought that one of the perks of living in the U.S.A. was that they didn't open all your mail, like in the Soviet Union or China. At least, that's what I was taught in grammar school.

Or was that never true of international mail? Exactly what can or can't they open? Is domestic mail safe? Do they need a warrant?

Re:Privacy of the Mail?

[nagora]

All international mail in and out of the US has been opened for at least thirty years. All international calls have been monitored for at least 15 years, probably more.

Most countries reserve the right to open international mail as a matter of routine to check for duty-payable goods such as artwork etc.

TWW

Re:Privacy of the Mail?

[BitHerder]

Yeah, they've kinda reconsidered that concept. Something about a guy named Kaszcynski.

UPS & Weird stories about packages

[terrymr]

This would be the same UPS that once told me it was illegal under FDA regulations to ship a laptop by air in order to cover up for their error in sending prepaid next-day air package by ground. I called the FDA they had no idea why UPS would think that.

The US

[Anonymous Coward]

A country that allows citizens to carry concealed handguns on the off chance they may need to protect their property from the King of England, but doesn't allow their citizens to have computer cables which are normally used for legal purposes.

Does anyone else find this funny?

Re:The US

[Red Rocket]

I do. But I live here so I'm not allowed to say that openly. Be thankful you live in a free country.

You Make a Good Point (but You're Wrong)

[FreeUser]

It is terrible to see this effect from the DMCA. Basically it is destroying technical education in the US. Long term this could be a very bad thing and just turn the US into a nation of consumers and not producers,

You are absolutely, 100% correct up to this point, and indeed make an excellent point too many people overlook.

However:

which will eventually destroy the market that the DMCA backers are trying to protect.

Or I could be totally wrong.

Yes, and here's why:

The DMCA backers have absolutely no interest in protecting the computer industry, or indeed any of the markets which will be destroyed by the DMCA over the next five or ten years. Indeed, they could really care less (and in some cases would welcome such destruction, particularly of the internet and computer-related products that allow such easy, and to them unwholesom, copying).

They are solely interested in protecting our Bread and Circuses, in particular the Media and Copyright Cartels that have diluted and dumbed down our once-rich culture into mass-disseminated least-common-denominator pop.

If you will recall from your history, the Bread and Circuses industry can survive, even thrive in an economy which has otherwise completely imploded, and will generally continue to do so until the entire civilization falls and is destroyed. I refer you to the last centuries of the Roman Empire as an historical example (by no means unique, but certainly the most widely known example of this), when leaders would choose to use their distribution networks (ships) to ship sand rather than desperately needed food or other goods, for the sake of the games.

The DMCA was designed to protect the entrenched media interests by outlawing much of basic science and engineering, and indeed much of the technology, integral to continuing the "information revolution." They know this, we know this, and they just don't care, so long as their business models are protected. Indeed, as things get worse people are likely to seek more escape, not less, so they can reasonably expect to see their profits soar as a result.

Re:You Make a Good Point (but You're Wrong)

[Ice Tiger]

Just as a question, if the US becomes non competetive with the rest of the world due to DMCA, will this not destroy the profit that the DMCA backers want?

Bread and Circuses was more to distract the population from changing thier leaders whereas the DMCA backers do not get replaced by a change in governement.

Some good discussion here.

Iain

Re:You Make a Good Point (but You're Wrong)

[FreeUser]

Just as a question, if the US becomes non competetive with the rest of the world due to DMCA, will this not destroy the profit that the DMCA backers want?

Entertainment money is an interesting thing. Hollywood made bocoup bucks during the great depresseion, a time when, in the United States at least, people were scrounging for enough to eat and many were actually starving.

The same has held true during every recession: spending on entertainment has stayed steady even as spending on basics (like food) declines. Faced with a good meal or two hours of escape from our tepid reality, a great many of us seem to choose two hours of escape.

So, even if most of the other segments of our economy are depressed as a result of gutting our high-tech industry, which is what laws like the DMCA, the proposed SSSCA and UCITA, are essentially designed to do in order to protect some outdated but deeply entrenched interests, it is likely the Bread and Circuses Industry, if you will, will continue to do well. What this means is that this problem is not self-correcting at all, unfortunately.

Bread and Circuses was more to distract the population from changing thier leaders whereas the DMCA backers do not get replaced by a change in governement.

I won't get into a debate about who is actually governing in a system where politicians can be purchased so inexpensively (relative to even a small corporations annual profits), but I will point out that Bread and Circuses are there to distract the populace, pure and simple. Whether it is distraction from an expansion of an unconstitutional (but popular) war on drugs to an even more unconstitutional (and even more popular) war on terrorism, distraction from inept leadership granting monopolies to telcos and refusing to enforce the law against software monopolies, or simply distraction from the emptiness of one's own existence isn't so much the point as it is a distraction. It is intended to be, it is designed to be, and it serves the purposes of many levels of power and influence in our governance, including our formal government as well as the large corporations that appear to be calling the shots more and more blatently.

It is likely for this reason, as much as any other, that congress, the white house, and the judiciary are willing to overlook inconvinient portions of the constitution and threaten entire industries which are in no small part responsible for our affluence in the last two decades simply to protect the purveyors of said Bread and Circuses.

The DMCA specifically allows R.E.ing

[yerricde]

Reverse engineering is supposedly covered under Fair Use, right?

In fact, the letter of the DMCA (17 USC 1201(f)) makes an exception to its anti-circumvention provisions for acts of reverse engineering "necessary to achieve interoperability." (The reasoning in the 2600 case was flawed, and it's in appeals right now.)

It's probably the company and not the product

[jesseraf]

I'd assume the company got black listed due to other reasons (read products) and not the product. The product would seem to be legitimate enough (there's an identical product which suits the same purpose, but only more expensive), but I have a feeling that this company sells other products, and customs just saw the name, and said "Nope, DMCA."

Where is it then?

[Anonymous Coward]

The floppy disk slot on my Dreamcast? I've been looking for hours now...

Re:Where is it then?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just forget it and go back to your work on cold fusion.

Don't be deliberately obtuse- Patented _Connector_

[Nonesuch]

dattaway wrote:

hmmmm... a patent covering the serial transfer of data over a twisted pair of wires accompanied by control lines limiting bandwidth in a controlled
fashion.

I assume you are being deliberately obtuse. Clearly the patent is on the connector, that is to say, the physical interface.

Sega can legitimately hold a patent on an 'innovative and non-obvious' mechanism for the physical contacts and plug configuration for their custom serial port. This can be a valid use of patents, even though we find it repulsive that they use their patent to restrict who can interface hardware to their system...

Rediculous counter argument from both of you...

[gfxguy]

That someone can make their own is completely irrelevent - that a legitimate item was stopped by customs (or whomever) because it MIGHT have uses that violate the DMCA is the point of the discusion.

This whole thing is absurd.

Re:How is a serial cable in the Dreamcast differen

[rworne]

It is not just the DMCA: it is the whole idea, very popular these days in political talk, that if something can be used for harmful purposes, it needs to be banned inmediately because it will be used in that manner.

You seem to be missing the point. Importing deadly weapons (guns) and importing Intellectual Property infringement devices (serial cables) have clearly shown where the priorities of this country now lay in regards to its citizens.

Probable cause?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought you guys had a constitutional safeguard against this sort of behaviour?

Re:Probable cause?

[mr. roboto]

I thought you guys had a constitutional safeguard against this sort of behaviour?

Barely. Don't get me started on the marginal constitutionality of drug-related seizure laws. This is a special case though; we're not talking about search and seizure of property, we're talking about customs controls. Customs has the responsibility (and power) to control what enters the country. If you're going to be importing something, you've got to be willing to let customs have a look at it. If they don't like it, they won't let it in. It's like that everywhere, I think.

Re:Probable cause?

[mpe]

I thought you guys had a constitutional safeguard against this sort of behaviour?

A written constitution is only as good as the people prepared to back it up. Without that we are simply talking "ink on paper".
Problem with the US is that too many of the populace have been trusting government for too long. Even where people should know better...

Answer: Civil Dosibedience

[argoff]

The DMCA is but a branch on a vine who'se seed is the attitude that it is alright to derive value by restricting the copying practices of others. Even if we can't attack the DMCA in the courts we can directly attack copyright laws by defiance and civil disobedience. I would say that it is not only all right, but a duty because so much is at stake. It is a simple solution that is non violent, non coercive, and relatively low risk, the fact that we have it so easy compaired to others who suffered and died for liberties is a blessing and an opportunity that should not be ignored or passed up.

Re:Answer: Civil Dosibedience

[donutello]

Idiot. The people who died for civil liberties died for basic human rights. The right to vote. The right to be born a free person. The right for all people to be treated equally.

It makes me sick to the stomach to hear a pimple faced teenager compare that to the right to copy someone elses works or creations.

Re:Answer: Civil Dosibedience

[argoff]

Yes, last I renembered they died for things like freedom of speech. This freedom is directly being threatened by the DMCA today, and only a moron could deny it. Copying and immitating is a basic human right that is practiced from day we're born, the consequences of restricting it on learning, education, and culture will rip society to shreads as more laws like the DMCA are shoved down our throats. It is sickening to see people in such denial they spit on they very rights they exercise in promotion of such a farce and the prople who fought for them.

Re:Answer: Civil Dosibedience

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit.

You guys are just pissed because you can't pump all that mass media crap everywhere for free. For some of us, who are tired of the mass market 'entertainment' we're glad it's being contained by the producers. I have no sympathy for the bandwidth hogs who pump the same digital images all over the 'net, interfering with real communications, which is a two-way process.

Go to the local music store (I am NOT talking about the local music recording store!) and buy a recorder, a harmonica, a guitar or drum. Learn to make some REAL music.

Then come back to me and talk about your freedom to communicate.

Re:Answer: Civil Dosibedience

[argoff]

You guys are just pissed because you can't pump all that mass media crap everywhere for free. For some of us, who are tired of the mass market 'entertainment' we're glad it's being contained by the producers. I have no sympathy for the bandwidth hogs who pump the same digital images all over the 'net, interfering with real communications, which is a two-way process.

Why is it that everyone thinks that opposition to copyrights is just about kids who want to copy music or videos? And this is also dead wrong, copyrights promote a culture of hype over substance, they promote this "anything to get attention" attitude because that's what makes the most money. If you get rid of copyrights, then that will change.

Don't give them ideas! (was Re:Cable vs. knife)

[Nonesuch]

BlowCat writes:

Banning cables is even worse - it creates a notion of "pirates' tool", something tangible that can be used as a "weapon" by "bad guys" and should be kept out of the country.

Actually, in the UK, knives are something that can be banned from import -- they even restrict printed magazines that promote 'combat knives' on the basis that they are a tool only for the "bad guys".

References:

• The Criminal Justice Act 1988
• http://law.rainertech.co.uk/justice.htm
• Offensive Weapons Act 1996

The one good reference I had on the advertising restrictions was an AOL homepage that has since vanished... you'll have to do the research yourself if you won't take my word on the laws.

why Sega?

[www.sorehands.com]

They told customs that this company sends illegal items into the country. Or they told customs that this product was illegal.

It would be a diffult suing customs for following what they have been told or UPS for following customs' instructions.

By bring such a case into court, you may get a court ruling that would chip away at the DMCA. That probably was the idea behind the Felton case.

Re:why Sega?

[pythas]

Overall, this is all conjecture unless this guy gets more info from customs.

This company could've been just as easily reported to customs by Sony, Nintendo, or even Microsoft.

Who can say if customs even opened the box? Who can say that if they had, they would've known this particular cable was for a Dreamcast?

Re:why Sega?

[Yakko]

While I was in Germany, I had to declare, on the outside of each parcel, what was inside. This was for each parcel sent back to the USA.

Perhaps they should resort to declaring it as a "SERIAL CABLE" instead of a "DREAMCAST CODER CABLE"

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[Jandor14]

I ordered one of these cables from lik-sang recently and had it shipped via Fed Ex into the U.S. with no problems.

The pre-fab cable is nice and most of the first home built ones used a dc to neo geo link cable. The neo geo link cable is hard to find anymore but Sega does/did sell a serial cable to connect two dreamcasts together. Using this cable and the link already provided by Psx29 to Marcus Comstedt's site you could make two dc coder cables! There should be no DMCA problems with that! The official sega cables are hard to find but there are third parties who make dc accessories that also offer a clone of the official sega cable.

Of course if you don't mind a little more permanent solution just attach the wires directly to the pins on the dc's serial port :-)

Re:Don't be deliberately obtuse- Patented _Connect

[Elbows]

Yes, but is changing the arrangments of the pins
and shape of the connector on one end of normal
serial cable "innovative" or "non-obvious"?

Somehow it doesn't seem that way to me...

patents violating consumer property rights

[dattaway]

What if they had a patent designed to prevent the consumer from interfacing with their purchased product. Or does the consumer not "own" property anymore, but have only "usage rights" these days and reverse engineering be damned.

"You may not import a product to allow a competitor's tires to fit our car. Your car is the property of the manufacturer and must be surrendered upon demand if the end usage terms and conditions are violated."

I'm not up on my abbreviations

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the CDA?

Re:I'm not up on my abbreviations

[Anonymous Coward]

The Communcations Decency Act. No pr0n for kiddies, ya know...

The Secondary Definition of "Pragmatic"

[UNIBLAB_PowerPC]

The point is not that he could get around it, the point is he shouldnt have to, because he bought the friggen cable to begin with.

But that means complaining about an unchangable situation is more important than finding a viable solution. Now that's some fuzzy logic. The pragmatic viewpoint is to do whatever it takes to achieve a solution -- build a cable first to turn in that project, then complain about the DMCA later (too much of a hassle? get a new project. no time to complain? get over it.). Don't be confused with the first definition of "pragmatic" in the dictionary -- what I mean is the secondary definition, which means "relating to matters of fact or practical affairs often to the exclusion of intellectual or artistic matters; practical as opposed to idealistic."

Practically speaking, dude has a project that requires a cable. He needs a cable to complete his project. The DMCA won't write him a note excusing him from his assignment. Since he's a grad student, do you honestly think the prof will cut him some slack? Maybe more slack than an undergrad would get, but not enough slack to make a cable appear automagically from thin air. That's about as likely as the DMCA being repealed before the assignment is due. Priorities, priorities, priorities.

Re:The Secondary Definition of "Pragmatic"

[Gaijin42]

Pragmatically speaking, the sum of all the crap that EVERYONE who has a situation like this is going to go through, is worth the trouble of people fighting it up front.

Of course it wont happen in time for his project. But he needs to make the fight now, while he has people who can back up his position, while it is active, not something that happened in the past.

Re:Outrageous! (1984)

[spd_rcr]

why does it always seem like some people took the mandatory reading of 1984 the wrong way in highschool ? it was a warning, not a guide book =P
it's a pity the police forces aren't public corporations, i'd love to invest money, they control freedom, freedom is a very expensive comodity.

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[Quixadhal]

Yes, but if the cable has been declared illegal, then building your own cable from pinouts would be circumventing the "protection", and that is itself a violation of the DMCA.

In that light, ordering a non-region-1 DVD is also a circumvention of copy protection, and thus violates the DMCA.... of course reading this post also violates the DMCA as it circumvents the copy-protection I put in place -- namely writing "Don't read this post!".

"educational use" = piracy

[Dr. Awktagon]

Yeah, we all know what this guy was going to do. If he wasn't going to pirate games and deprive Sony of their earned income, then he was probably going to "hack" the console, and we all know hacking is illegal.

As part of the lab, we are intending on using the Sega Dreamcast console as a real-time system; we'll be writing a scheduler for it and some simple games.

Man, an entire class devoted to stealing other people's work? I think it's time for a TOP TO BOTTOM review of our educational system, and we need to route out these thieves pretending to be teachers. Put them behind bars I say!

The Dreamcast isn't even mine; it's my roommate's.

Sure, steal from Sony, steal from your roommate, steal from old ladies, steal from your Church, what's the difference?

Looks to me like the DMCA was working just fine, and stopped another potential criminal from commiting a crime. Does this guy really think he's smarter than Congress, who knew exactly what they were doing when passing this law?

(Note this post is a JOKE. And a bad one at that. :-) Move along.)

Re:"educational use" = piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

To make it just the slightest bit more credible, you could've gotten the videogame manufacturer right.

You can still import from canada

[Chrome3]

I bought a coders cable from a company in Canada about 2 weeks ago. Lik Sang had a similar price but I wanted to avoid the long shipping delays and having to resolve customer issues across language barriers. Anyway, it arrived a couple days later with no troubles over shipping or customs.

The cable is obviously hand made, the adapter section is covers in plastic wrap instead of some hard encloser.

The main issue that customs can have here it that I will be using my cable to help with the netbsd-superh project. But I can also use the cable to load a binary dump utility and then download the contents of a game disk back to the PC. This is useful for copying GD-rom disks which can't be read on normaly cd-roms, but can be read on a dreamcast.

While Sega thinks its ok for me to program Netbsd, the game developers might be upset if I start copying games.

What I would do

[MrResistor]

First order of business is to file complaints with as many government agencies as possible. Basically, make yourself a huge pain in the ass. File complaints with the FTC against UPS and US Customs, as they are clearly obstructing your 5th Amendment right to Due Process by refusing to provide information necessary to appeal the decision. While you are not being accused of a crime directly, you are certainly being deprived of property (and perhaps liberty, depending on the legal definition) without the opportunity to contest that decision (due process). Be sure to file a complaint against UPS with your local BBB alo, as well as any other agency with any power to regulate trade and business practices. Like I said, make yourself as bigg of a pain in the ass as you can. The squeeky wheel gets the grease.

Next, talk to a Lawyer about forcing UPS to provide that information, and perhaps persuing other avenues of compensation for their negligence. Also, discuss the possibility of bringing suit against US Customs contesting their misapplication of the DMCA. Obviously, you want to start by talking to folks with deeper pockets than your own who might take an interest in the matter, such as the EFF and your schools legal department. (I did see the EFF mentioned, but not UMNs stance. UMN is probably more likely to get directly involved than the EFF, since this directly effects the quality of education they are able to offer their students and the research they are able to do.)

Anyway, that's what I would do.

Re:What I would do

[forkboy]

Actually, the right to due process is granted in the 14th amendment. The 5th protects you from self-incrimination and double jeopardy.

Technically, it's not really a violation of due process since he isn't being punished for buying the cable. If they came to his house and threw him in jail, or even just fined him, then yes, that would be a violation of his rights.

The only thing in the Bill of Rights that the DMCA really violates is the 1st amendment. (DeCSS anyone?)

Re:What I would do

[MrResistor]

Read it again.

The 5th Amendment contains the phrase "nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law".

The 14th amendment contains almost the same statement, except that it applies specifically to the States. US Customs, however, is a Federal agency, and thus it is the 5th Amendment that applies.

He is most definately being denied property (the cables), and by UPS withholding from him the information he needs to appeal that judgement, he is being denied due process. How is that so difficult to understand? There are a lot of ways for the government to violate your rights besides throwing you in jail.

Re:What I would do

[forkboy]

Not being allowed to buy something and having it taken forcefully from you are 2 different things.

Re:What I would do

[MrResistor]

That's irrelevant. He is still being denied property, and he is still being prevented from contesting that decision, and UPS and US Customs are still violating the law by withholding the information he needs. From the US Customs website:

All seizures, forfeitures, mitigation, and property dispositions are strictly governed by laws designed to afford the greatest possible due process.

The importer is provided with a "Notice of Seizure," listing the items seized, the law(s) violated, the violator's options (rights and time to petition, elect judicial or administrative processing, etc.) and the Customs contact location and telephone number.

Note also that the cable itself is not even illegal. It is merely sold by a company that at one time sold, but no longer sells, a product which was deemed illegal under the DMCA.

Doesn't Matter. DMCA's not about patents

[sterno]

What does Sega having or not having a patent have to do with this? The DMCA is all about circumventing an access control measure to a copyrighted work, and doesn't really care about what Sega's patents are. If they want to go after the company manufacturing them for patent infringement, fine (assuming they have a patent), but that has nothing to do with this issue.

What we have happening here is that an item is being forbidden to enter the country because it MIGHT be usable for bypassing an access control to a copyrighted work. The DMCA makes no distinction about whether the item may have other leagl uses. Seems like a lawsuit is in order against the US customs department, and this has some really strong legal ground to stand on.

Or maybe not a Patented Connector? Japanese ISDN?

[Nonesuch]

On further reading, it appears that the connector itself may just be the Japanese standard ISDN plug, and not something Dreamcast-unique. You still need a special cable to do the conversion between TTL and RS-232 voltages.

This conversion is a very common issue with a lot of products, schematics and chips to handle the adjustment are all over the net.

Elbows writes:

Yes, but is changing the arrangments of the pins and shape of the connector on one end of normal serial cable "innovative" or "non-obvious"?
Somehow it doesn't seem that way to me...

Actually, yes- I have seen some truly innovative means of connecting serial interfaces, including some really ancient IBM technology that is truly bizarre- looks like some sort of electroshock torture device, but apparently works really well :-)

The USPTO has been pretty lax about this sort of thing, pretty much pay your money and get a 'rubber stamp' approval without any real review.

Magnifing glass illegal too

[JDizzy]

If I were to use a magnifing glass to read an authors text that was intentionally writen too small for me to see, would that be considered using the magnafing glass as a circumvention device? The answer is yes, technically it would be circumvention.

Reading is not copying

[Microsift]

'nuff said...

Try html tags....

[Hammer]

How could this be "informative" when the poster cant even tag his post properly

<A href="http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html">http://mc .pp.se/dc/serifc.html</A>

would create
http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html

Re:Try html tags....

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps it's "informative" because it contains useful information. If you gave it enough time, even you could probably figure out how to cut and paste the url in order to visit the site.

Plus the cut and paste method will get you to a site that describes how to make a serial cable for the dreamcast. It does not take you to goatse.cx like your link does.

Re:Try html tags....

[ryusen]

well technically the mod was "informative" not "useful" .)

Re:Try html tags....

[schmoli]

Damn you're a whiny bitch, it's not informative cause he doesn't bury the damn link in HTML tags?

The info is there who cares if you have to cut and paste.

-Toli

Re:Try html tags....

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's something I want you to think about.

It took you more time to write your response than to cut and paste the URL.

Re:Try html tags....

[Psx29]

Acutally I meant to make it a link but by the time I realised my mistake I had already posted it, oh well -=/

Down with the DMCA

[http101]

We've got to find a way to bring the DMCA to its knees so we don't get screwed everyday. He's right. Some fatass politician is sitting there spouting crap about computer hardware. I might as well be CONVICTED because I happen to build computers. I have to "decode" the jumper configurations that are configurations PATENTED by the manufacturer every time I build a computer. Technically, building a computer is in violation...

Lock me up boys and throw away the key. I'd like to be put in your minimum security resort where there's decent food, electric light, cushy reclining chairs, and cable tv. God Bless America.

International shipments are different

[Fair Use Guy]

Generally, domestic shipments are immune to warrantless searches (although this protection has been eroded in many drug-related cases). However, anything coming into the country is subject to warrantless searches and random in spections by Customs. This is the only possible way for them to enforce duties, restrictions on prohibited agricultural/narcotic items and weapons, and many other regulations.

Typically Customs will review paperwork for all items coming into the country and flag suspicious items for further investigation. Software, metal items (e.g. guns), and a few other categories are routinely examined because they have been frequent sources of trouble in the past.

Fair Use of the Day Backup Exec 7: :s/n: 04-4382-0006-031770
DizIt v1.6 for Dos :name: TwinHead [TWH/UCF] s/n: 159864
RipBAR Pro V2.0c for Windows 95 :ZZJZ9X
ZTreeWin *v1.13 for Win95 :3858d4
Conference Room v1.1 :1154-1154-2154-1154
Easy MP3 2.3 Build 5 :name/CORE/ITR #/260542208
ACDSee32 v2.3 :Name: RAGGER/CORE Key: 0718645668
Streetwizard v5.0 for Windows :24451FD
Hurricane WebPromo v1.54 :Name: Sung Song Code: 122206986
x-CAST4 Network Broadcast System :s/n: 504136-001

/fug

But AK47s are fine ...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a good thing the NRA can stil get AK47s off the boat ... Hey maybe there's an idea in there ...

Re:But AK47s are fine ...

[delus10n0]

This has to be one of the most retarded comments I've ever seen on SlashDot. Sheesh.

Fire yourself, dude.

They don't have to look to the USA for bad food

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hamburger Quick" comes from Belgium.

Are You the Next Sklyarov? Answer: [CENSORED]

[Wintersmute]

This is one more illustration of why the DMCA reads as veritable "What Not to Do" Guide for statutory drafting...

To summarize the language of the DMCA - "No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any [circumvention] technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof..." 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(2).

If the cable that Colin tried to import is prohibited under the DMCA, then Marcus Comstedt's Programming site, whose URL was posted previously, still consists of "offering to the public" the "technology." Therefore, to the extent the import is prohibited, so is disclosing how to improvise one.

And fair use? Yeah - nevermind that. Doesn't apply to circumvention technologies. Hell, even Slashdot may be on the hook for hosting this discussion because the safe harbors for ISPs don't apply in Sec. 1201.

Recall what happened when 2600 was enjoined from posting DeCSS. Following the issuance of the injunction, in true keeping with 2600 style, the site just linked to sites where you could get DeCSS. The court wasn't amused, and that was enjoined too. And while no one is foolish enough to pursue claims on these grounds (as much as the EFF might appreciate it) the mere fact that the DMCA permits such actions exemplifies why its passage was an unmitigated catastrophe.

This happenned to a friend of mine just yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

Confiscated his NEO4 chip he was going to use on the PS2 for some dev stuff. Guess this was not an isolated incident.

America is _not_ the land of the free

[t_allardyce]

How the hell can you call your country the land of the free when your not even allowed to import a piece of wire. And no, don't give me any bull shit stories of IP protection. It is a bit of wire, with at the most a couple of components soldered on. Its not a nuke, a vile of anthrax or cuban cigars (Why the _hell_ are these banned in a free country???) its just metal, and plastic. Ok, maybe you could strangle someone with it - but for crists sake, you let 12 year olds by automatic weapons. ROFL serves you all right.

Re:America is _not_ the land of the free

[borgheron]

As far as human rights (i.e. the right to live, the right to express yourself, etc) the US is unsurpassed. The problem w/ this country is that it's political process is dominated, not by the people, but by big corporate special interest groups which use soft money to buy politicians.

In this country, unfortunately, might often makes right.

Please see my petition below to stop the patenting of trivial software solutions by large companies like the ones which backed the DMCA.

GJC

Re:America is _not_ the land of the free

[t_allardyce]

As far as human rights (i.e. the right to live, the right to express yourself, etc) the US is unsurpassed.

Err, sorry, no. I think if you look at the UN Human Freedom Index you will find that you are far from unsurpassed (do i bother going on about exicutions, strapping people in chairs and cooking them, poluting the planet, sticking your nose in where its not wanted, and police that randomly beat up black people and stick innocent programmers in prison?)

Re:America is _not_ the land of the free

[t_allardyce]

...oops, i almost forgot: flag burning and homosexuality is still illigal in some parts of your country...

Re:America is _not_ the land of the free

[borgheron]

I didn't see, in any of the sites which I searched , the criteria for awarding the scores listed which were from 1-40 (where 40 is the "most free"). It also depends on how freedom is defined.

The US does not "stick it's nose in where it's not wanted" it watches out for it's own interests. If the rest of the world doesn't like it, too bad. Every other country on the face of the planet does the same thing, the US just has the advantage of being able to put some weight behind its foreign policy.

As far as police that "randomly beating up black people", statistics in this country do show evidence of racial profiling only in certain states (mostly the south). I agree that this is a problem, and steps are being taken at the federal level to put a stop to it. At least, in the US, a person who has commited a crime *has* rights. In most other countries you are presumed guilty and do not have the right to a speedy trial. I have heard stories about innocent people languishing in prison for years before their trial.

As far as "polluting the planet" is concerned the US is larger (except for Canada) than most of the countries on the planet (mostly those in Europe). It stands to reason that more pollutants will be produced.

As far as "sticking innocent programmers in prison" I am forced to agree with you all the way. One of the major problems the US government faces is corruption by large special interests. Governments in most other countries have similar problems, I suspect.

For some offenses I can agree with the death penalty (hate crimes, mass murder, etc.), but I think it should only be used as a last resort when rehabilitation is not possible.

GJC

Re:America is _not_ the land of the free

[borgheron]

There are certain "blue" laws in this country which are no longer enforced, but are still on the books. I am aware of the flag burning law, but not of the law concerning homosexuality.

GJC

Horse shit!

[2Bits]

Ok, I'll bite too.

The whole four paragraphs in parent are simply horse shit. I can't believe people have been conditioned to the point of accepting whatever politicians which are bought by special interest groups have slapped to them.

Yes, research is allowed. You are free to research any of your own creations. Feel free to investigate the laws of nature. Feel free to experiment to come up with different ways to travel. Feel free to write software, create art in original ways. None of that is illegal.

Wake up, man. All researches are based upon previous knowledge and discovery. Imagine if all data structures and algorithms have been patented/copyrighted. Feel free to write software without violating someone's patent. How are you gonna do that? My wife is a Ph.D and working on early cancer detection research, based on some hereditary genes. And guess what, genes and the process of splicing/cutting/purifying/etc are all patented. The whole process of the research violates someone's patents on more than half of the steps required. Even the result analysis process is patented. Go figure.

what, and this is freedom ?

[cxgd]

I love this, in the land of the free you can't import a serial cable. Words fail me.

Re:Outrageous! (1984)

[base3]

And apparently, it was a warning wasted on most of the generation currently in office. Or maybe they're using it as a "guide book."

Looks like Customs' beef is with Lik Sang.

[MsGeek]

Customs recently started checking ALL of Lik-Sang's shipments to the US (under the guise of trying to stop any NEO4s from coming in -- even though Lik-Sang immediately stopped shipping them when they were announced as being against the DMCA). They were denying coder's cables, gameboy wormlights, everything. Basically, it looks like they were too lazy to hand-check the packages and just refused almost all of them going from Lik-Sang into the US via UPS

This doesn't seem like something SEGA has anything to do with. It actually looks like all those posts about Sony might be zeroing in on the REAL problem. Lik Sang used to sell PSX and PS2 modchips. Looks Sony beefed loud and long to Customs about Lik Sang and their sales of "copyright circumvention devices" to North America.

Basically US Customs agreed with Sony and basically said "No more Lik Sang imports, period, until we bring these Chi-Com bastards to their knees!" And that's where we are right now.

From what I understand SEGA is very supportive of the developer underground now that the Dreamcast is no more. They still don't like piracy but with DC games going for $10 or less at Fry's it's not an issue anymore. Why sweat trying to burn a GDRom (which is doable on a DVD-RW drive but not on a CD-RW) when you can probably pick up that game you want on eBay for $7.99? Silly, silly, silly. Even rare games like Dead Or Alive 2, Soul Calibur and Grand Theft Auto 2 are going for less money than they initially sold for.

Again, the villain seems not to be SEGA but Sony, a company which is a signatory to both the MPAA and the RIAA. Again, look at my .SIG here. Know your enemy.

Re:Looks like Customs' beef is with Lik Sang.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not exactly arguing here, but why do you say DOA2 and SC are rare games?

I have bought two DC's now, primarily to play SC, and DOA2 was the third or fourth game I bought. I had no trouble finding either one.

And IMO, there's still no better fighting game than Soul Calibur. I'm just pissed that I'll need to buy a new console for SC2.

Re:Looks like Customs' beef is with Lik Sang.

[MsGeek]

By rare I mean: 1.) Out of print, 2.) In big demand, 3.) Fetching insane prices on eBay. You will have no trouble finding SC and/or DOA2 if you are willing to pay about $40 or $50 for a used copy.

BTW Virtua Fighter 3tb is a GREAT alternative to DOA2 and is easy to find at less than stratospheric (for used DC games) prices.

In other news.

[Penguinoflight]

Joe Inventor of lameness Inc, invented a wheel with nubs for better traction. Of course this used proprietary technology, so under the DMCA nobody is allowed to make wheels that work on nub-compliant roads.

Re:Or maybe not a Patented Connector? Japanese ISD

[Sj0]

The DMCA isn't about patents in that way, it's about copyright. That guy can't have his serial cable because he could use it(not bloody likely) to circumvent the copyright protection on music CDs and (possibly, depending on interpetation), dreamcast disks.

That's the reason the DMCA is such a bad law. It bans anything (ANYTHING) which can be used to circumvent copy protection.

It's like banning(and making it illegal to sell or distribute, or information on how to create) butterknives because they could be plunged into a persons chest. Stupid. Immoral too.

Buy them in the US then

[Anonymous Coward]

Zophar's Domain sells them:
http://www.zophar.net/store/items.phtml?dc-acc#d c- cocab

Note that it says "Software not included" meaning what you do with it is your own business.

UPDATE

[Falkkin]

I don't have time to individually respond to any of the posts here, but I'll be posting periodic updates on my web page. There are a couple up now (I have more info on why my package was stopped from HK; apparently *all* packages from lik-sang.com shipped in the last week or so have been detained...) and I'll be adding more as I get more info -- I've been rather inundated with e-mails in the last couple hours. :) Thanks to everyone here for your support; I'm hoping we can get this issue resolved soon.

Colin McMillen

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[Anonymous Coward]

F**k THE DMCA ... I'll continue to do as I please and see if the have the balls or resources to stop me ....

Bob Cringley Read This Story

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been reading the things you've done my whole life. I watch your TV shows. You are the most important person on PBS to me. Will you make a cable for us? Update 3 hours later: Subj: "No", message body: "let me point my high-powered 802.11 setup at your head instead"

commie

[Anonymous Coward]

you are a freaking communist, what "shackles" of copyright law? maybe people want to get paid money for their work.

mod parent -1, overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

how is this insightful? anyone who saw the article already saw that. you are just enabling the lazy, there isnt any actual content to your post.

freaking karma whore.

Re:mod parent -1, overrated

[alech]

It's not in the article, it is on the linked page.

And that has been changed after I submitted this comment. The quote I have in my comment wasn't on that page when the article was fresh. So much for that, coward.

what communist modded parent down, overrated?

[Anonymous Coward]

parent poster is right. you can't just pirate stuff and say "its for educational use, it doesnt hurt them." whlie it sounds like customs has been overzealous, there is still a chance that it is illegal.

Re:what communist modded parent down, overrated?

[Fizzlewhiff]

Hey, its Slashdot. Unless you say Linux rules, Windows sucks, and intellectual property rights are for ninnies you're going to be modded down. I don't mind, hell I expect this post to get nailed as flamebait. I don't mind the bad karma, that's what Google cache is for. (A quick way to get +5 informative. LOL)

Oooh! gotta run. KDE just added a new font and subsequently released a new beta. Gotta get it ere the servers clog.

Sights & Sounds beyond your imagination

[YorkshireONE]

The foulest set of toilets in the world are the ones in the McDonalds "restaurant" in Paris.

Re:Sights & Sounds beyond your imagination

[Anonymous Coward]

Which one?

Re:Sights & Sounds beyond your imagination

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw a lot of French men going into the restroom and coming out very happy, so I don't know what you're talking about.

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[hyphz]

Heh. Based on this, they should have blocked imports of the Dreamcast to Neo-Geo Pocket interfacing cable too, because that's what the original coder's cables were made from.

There's no way this is about piracy, though. When people were developing for the DC VMS, Sega discussed giving them access to the professional development kit! And the homebrew DC API libraries explicitly omit all routines for accessing GD-ROMS precisely to discourage the use of coders kits for piracy...

eBay hates them too!

[TheLocustNMI]

I know for a fact, because i was attempting to sell my DC with the cable, and they came back with a "illegal materials" notice, so i took off a note I had about some copied games on the auction listing -- thinking that was what they were after! So, i reposted, with the cable still on it, and they canned my account! I had no idea you could copy games with it! Oh well -- so they are getting a bum rap, methinks...

Re:eBay hates them too!

[borgheron]

Snyde comment: If you had no idea you could copy games w/ it, why did you specify in your posting on eBay, that you had done so?

Just a thought.

GJC
P.S. I think this sucks royally as well... see my petition below to stop another type of intellectual land grab by big companies.

Here is the question..

[zeno_2]

How did UPS find out what was in the box? Do international packages get opened? Did they scan the package with an XRAY machine and decide that since there was a nasty 'cable' of all things in the box, we must inspect it.

Do cd burners get this same treatment when being shipped overseas?

Also, do they have a list of things that go against the DMCA? Id be really curious to see how they came to their conclusion.

Zeno

Custom officials at a loss...

[dargaud]

A bit OT but funny: I once ordered a bunch of Freshettes in the US for the women of our Himalayan expedition. It was blocked at the Italian customs because they considered it "medical equipment". I had to jump through all kind of legal loops to get those little pieces of plastic without being a doctor...

Dreamcast LAN adapter.

[Thag]

Ebay, but it'll cost you around $100 US.

I bought mine during the brief period that you could order it from Sega's website for $60.

You might also check www.lik-sang.com, but good luck.

Jon Acheson

Guns

[Tim Ward]

I would agree that the US would be better directing its energy towards gun control than this sort of nonsense.

A simple workaround...

[Black Rabbit]

...at least in this case, if it hasn't already been suggested...

Why not just order the parts individually, and build the damn cable yourself? Can't be that difficult!

Why Do Judges Keep Ruling in Favour of DMCA?

[javacowboy]

It seems that every week, we read about a new symptom of the ambiguities of the DMCA. Why do judges keep supporting this obviously flawed incoherent, and roughshod legislation that is the DMCA? IMO, the DMCA is a stack of legal cards that should have fallen apart years ago. Why is it still being upheld? Why has the judicial establishment squashed all coherent and legitimate legal challenges against it?

Geeks of the world, unite!!!

[natet]

This has been my beef all along with the DMCA. It punishes not for actual crimes, but for what might be. There is no innocent until proven guilty with the DMCA. As far as this law is concerned, we are all criminals just waiting for the chance to break loose and circumvent someones copy protection scheme. It is one major step closer to removing all fair-use under the law.

What we as the technocrats need to do is inform our less technically inclined friends and neighbors about the damage the DMCA could do them. Most people haven't a clue what it does, or even that it exists. These kinds of things will become more prevalent, and will eventually begin to affect the average joe on the street. Then there will be a public outcry, but by then it might be too late. We cannot allow large corporations to litigate for us. They will always go with their own interests, which are generally directly at odds with the interests of consumers.

sony, sega, whatever :-)

[Dr. Awktagon]

...blah blah blah...blah blah blah..

Thank you DMCA!

[hengist]

(begin irony)
As a New Zealander, I now officially love the DMCA! For years we New Zealanders have tried to compete with the USA's technical dominance. Now, we don't have to worry! The USA is destroying it's own technical dominance, and we don't have to do a thing to make it happen! Woohoo!
(end irony)

This law courtesy of the US Congress®, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Disney® Corporation.

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[ConsumedByTV]

I think thats the point of all this. The time is here when peoples shipments have been marked as a target by those resources. The DMCA makes yet another group of citizens into felons, every citizen a criminal, all speech dissident.

Re:Or maybe not a Patented Connector? Japanese ISD

[biobogonics]

The DMCA isn't about patents in that way, it's about copyright. That guy can't have his serial cable because he could use it(not bloody likely) to circumvent the copyright protection on music CDs and (possibly, depending on interpetation), dreamcast disks.

That's the reason the DMCA is such a bad law. It bans anything (ANYTHING) which can be used to circumvent copy protection.


This explains why my former boss has been unable to ship used CRTs from Canada to the US. So far none of them have cleared customs. Obviously since they might be used on computers, they *could* be used to violate the DMCA! Why customs lets modems through without a peep, is another story!

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[crucini]

Yes, but if the cable has been declared illegal, then building your own cable from pinouts would be circumventing the "protection", and that is itself a violation of the DMCA.

Actually, the DMCA prohibits traficking in circumvention devices. So you are (for now) free to make cables for yourself, but you are forbidden from giving or selling either the cable or the info needed to make it.

No, its near the bottom

[DABANSHEE]

Australia, Austria & Argentine Would be at the top. Afterall the list is alphabetical.

Re:No, its near the bottom

[Anonymous Coward]

Both "America" and "Alabama" would come before "Argentina" in an alphabetical list.

In most web-based dropdown lists, Afghanistan is always the first country listed. I always specify that as my home country, just to save having to scroll through a list of 600 countries to find my own. After all, why does a website need to know?

Re:No, its near the bottom

[UncleFluffy]

" Both "America" and "Alabama" would come before "Argentina" in an alphabetical list."

America is a continent (or 2)
Alabama is a state
Argentina is a country

Jesus!

[Anonymous Coward]

goddamn country is run by dummies!

Civil disobedience?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, I see two different directions here.

One of them - I'll call it the "anarchist youth argument" - says, "DMCA is bad because all copyright is bad, evil, null, and void, and by the way, ALL LAWS are bad too, and FUCK THE MAN!!!!"

I contend that this approach is taken by idiotic, pimple-faced teenagers who have no clue what they are doing and are just trying to legitimize their secret desire to go out and smash stuff up.

By contrast, the other one - I'll call this the "civil dissenter argument" - says, "the principle of copyright works well and is time-tested, but DMCA is bad because DMCA goes too far and cuts off the nation's nose to spite a few criminals' faces."

I'd say this approach is fair, certainly arguable, apparently accurate, and taken by wise and principled people, and will win in the end. But to win, it will need to be tirelessly discussed, proposed, presented, and - here's the important part - firmly separated from the "anarchist youth argument."

That's right. As its action of birth, any realistic anti-DMCA movement will have to irreversibly jettison all the pimple-faced wanna-be trendy rebels, actually come to grips with real actual reality, and start proposing something that actually has a chance of happening.

I imagine I'm ruffling a few feathers here by posting this analysis, but frankly, let the feathers fly. This argument may not sound as cool, but it has the advantage of BEING RIGHT.

Re:Civil disobedience?

[argoff]

Whose right? I hate to tell you this, but copyrights are already unenforcable. The DMCA is now trying to restrict speech about how to copy to gain back controll. While enforceable copyrights are already long gone, you're never going to get rid of people who want to restrict more freedoms until you attack the remaining copyright revenue streams.
Only a fool would think this has anything to do with music and videos, it has to do with freedoms.

Re:Civil disobedience?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hate to say this, but you underestimate the power, ingenuity, and tenacity of business. If you propose a solution that doesn't address their needs as well as your own, you'll eventually just end up with nothing.

Allaire's secrets revealed!

[Saint Fnordius]

Hell, maybe I should use a bong more often as well. The wonderful code I could produce...

More info

[mccabem]

Some reading material from our friends at google (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gun+deaths+p er+capita):

http://www.guncite.com/cnngunde.html

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/fafacts.htm

http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:-mDTgr9H-uA C: www.uagv.org/com091898.html+gun+deaths+per+capita& hl=en

http://www.asiamedicinenet.com/script/main/Art.a sp ?li=AMN&ArticleKey=6166

update: Sega Responds (poorly)

[Night Eagle]

I lobbied a friend in Sega's Marketing/PR arena to 'do the right thing' and have Sega declare this a non-piracy issue.

No dice. Sega is a big Media company like all the others and is, sadly, towing the party line. Here's their official repsonse:

"The Dreamcast Coder Cable is not a Sega licensed product. It is an unauthorized, black-market peripheral for Sega Dreamcast hardware and we do not condone its use or sale. Sega gives our full and complete support to U.S. customs in their efforts to stop piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sega stands by our position that piracy is a serious crime and must be stopped. Sega supports a creative team of developers and we aim to protect their intellectual and creative properties in order to deliver the best possible gaming experience to our consumers."

Just for fun, substitute "terrorism" or 'drug use" for "piracy" and the above statement makes equally good propaganda.

I guess Sega doesn't consider BSD developers to be "creative". Sorry guys.

Re:update: Sega Responds (poorly)

[acceleriter]

Fuck Sega. I hope they rot in hell.

Interesting parallel

[The Rizz]

A while back I read some information on a news board about a company in Canada that made hardware that could be used for satellite descramblers.

Aparrently, any shipment from the company sent to a US address through UPS was seized by customs officials. This seizure reportedly occurred regardless of what the item in the box was - US Customs just had a blacklist of companies.

Even more interesting was that there was a sure-fire method of getting something from one of these companies: Sending it through plain old mail with just a return address (no business name) - aparrently the US Post Office just sends the box on to your house without ever alerting Customs, unless there's something odd looking about it.

--The Rizz

"That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it." --congressional candidate in Texas

What the hell ?

[billcopc]

What I'd like to know is how these customs agents knew what the cable was used for ? It's not like 'Console Backups 101' is part of their official training.

What next ? They'll ban SmartMedia cards because they can be used with Gameboy cart emulators ?

Why don't they ban my car because I can use that to carry a crate full of pirated software ?

I tell ya, if they do sign a DMCA-like thing up here in Canada, I'm selling everything I own and buying myself a fucking senator (and/or guns).

DeCSS

[Grax]

DeCSS is arithmetic. And it is banned.

Best stop the problem at the source. First grade math class. If we stop the use of numbers we can prevent these circumvention devices from ever being created.

(And Sesame Street must be banned as well. All those numbers in a child's head can only lead to evil.)

Re:Or maybe not a Patented Connector? Japanese ISD

[Sj0]

looks like you've got the right idea.

Have you received a bill from UPS?

[Anonymous Coward]

I once asked a friend to FedEx a package from Boston to me in Japan. I had packed it, but she had access to cheap FedEx at work. I waited, and waited, and finally received a notice from FedEx that the package was held up in customs for inspection.

Apparently Japanese customs called her at work to find out what the odd, light brown, powdery substance in a jar was. This caused much suspicious and nervous laughter about her office. It was malt extract, but she didn't really know what to tell them it was.

In the end, the package arrived. Then a bill arrived. FedEx wanted about 5000 JPY or so for "storage". As I did not ask for or need storage, the Japanese customs office did, I didn't want to pay. They nagged me for a while, but finally gave up.

Anyway, even if cables, or anything else, are found to be OK in the end, just the hassle will make commerce impossible. Storage, handling, processing, and other service charges can put a lid on things just as quickly as an outright ban. This kind of FUD can work very well outside of direct regulation or legal requirements.

Keep your eyes peeled for a bill from UPS for storage or return shipment. That should eat up any possible refund and make anybody else think twice about shipping these things in the future.

One thing doesn't make sense to me

[Anonymous Coward]

How did customs actually recognise what the item was? Do they actually have a bunch of people working for them with a list of 'contraband' items and who can actually recognise a PCDC serial cable when they see one?

The more I think about that the worse it gets

[Anonymous Coward]

Here are a few ideas:

• They work from a blacklist of verboten products. If the shipper labels the box in a detailed way (e.g PC to DreamCast serial cable vs Computer Cabling) they nab it.
• They work from a blacklist of suspect companies.
• They actually waste a whole lotta money on enough knowledgeable people to suss these things out and open them one by one.

Any of these scenarios is pretty depressing. Who gets to draw up the blacklists? Industry submissions? The potential for abuse or mistakes is enormous. OTOH, if it's left up to individuals of varying knowledge and attitude to sort out, then the whole thing could be pretty capricious.

Any US customs inspectors out there?

Or maybe even someone can...

[Anonymous Coward]

...recognise a PC-DC cable from its X-ray!

What's next?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod-chip sniffing dogs???

Ahhhhh...

[Anonymous Coward]

...like the suspicious smell of fresh solder wafting up from a new PC...

I'm willling to BET...

[Anonymous Coward]

...that private interest groups (software developers, movie studios, the RIAA, MPAA and other commie scum) are paying their way into 'helping' make this list.

What a way to use capitalistic power (aka money) to screw over your competitor. I can see it now.

Linux can be used as a circumvention device, no more importing linux CDs from norther europe.

Anonymous American Software Giant

A computer capable of DVD Descrambling can be built from parts, including this Socket A motherboard and AMD CPU. We need to keep this out of our country.

Anonymous American Chipmaker

I'm seriously thinking of making a website dedicated to the DMCA where people can post their run-ins with this absolutely retarded law. I challenge any lawyer to find a single case where this bastardization of legal mumbo-jumbo has benifitted a single American Citizen.

Utter Crap. Actually.. I propose a paradigm shift in how our so-called government enacts law. If the legislation doesn't specificly help the individual citizens of the country, it cannot be passed. I think that would cut crime significantly and make people happy to live here. Happy instead of being scared. Scared of being a suspected terrorist. Fear of pocketing a stray bullet and going to jail. Fear of holding up a sign and envoking their first amendment rights to visit the slammer.

Of Course

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course "special interest groups" are "buying their way onto this list". These items are banned because of copyright complaints! This is how the system is supposed to work, but it's supposed to apply to privated goods, not a slightly non-standard computer cable or other legitimate game accessories.

No.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are plenty of honest companies, developers and artists who need the money that IP grants them. Art, software and the like do NOT come cheap or free at all.

IP is good. Companies and legislation which twist it to screw honest people are bad. Fight the last two.

do not justify theft, live with your actions

[Anonymous Coward]

I strongly believe that the notion of "software piracy" is wrong, because the so called "pirates" don't kill or rob anyone - the worst thing they do is depriving artists of some artificial monopoly that the society grants them to stimulate their creativity.

Oddly enough, I agree with your post, with the exception of the above. You might be thinking about ID Software, or Bill Gates, and other major software vendors, but the majority of the software world doesn't work that way (especially entertainment software, which you almost seem to be narrowing your statement down to). To put it plainly, I know people who code and contract for a living, and it isn't exactly living in a gold palace where you can burn money in your fireplace, ya know?

I'm not saying that you're denying Microsoft of some desperately needed profit when you burn copies of win* or office*, but they're an exception, not the rule. Some popular software vendors out there might not actually make as much money as you think, because people choose not to pay for their products. Some software vendors never even get off the ground.

Rambling is I. However, to close it out... I think you could stand to reevaluate how you feel about crime, and theft. Does it really matter that they're being granted an artificial monopoly with which to stimulate their creativity? Does it really matter that you're not "killing or robbing anyone?" I think what matters here is that software vendors create something that they choose to sell for a price. If you don't want it, don't buy it. High price doesn't give you a right to steal, just as it wouldn't give you the right to shoplift. Don't try and justify something that a lot of people do out of the fact that it is possible. Admit you're stealing, and live with it.

For further reading, check out book two of The Republic. You know, that Plato guy wrote it. :)

What if it's been justified for you?

[Anonymous Coward]

That is, what if it is not considered theft at all? Certainly it was not that long ago, in the grand scheme of things, that it was perfectly all right to copy creative works. (well, provided that they weren't seditious or licentious) The mere fact that someone has invested time and effort into creating the work appears to have little to do with its actual valuation by others.

We all enjoy breathing air, I'm sure. We'd all laugh heartily at people who not only were selling canned air for general consumption, but who were insisting that we were depriving them of potential profits by not using theirs.

As with any type of property right, it only exists when it is in the self-interest of the people expected to respect that right to do so. As a 'reader' I do not have the same goals as an 'author.'

I don't mind an author trying to make money, but where it diminishes my ability to enjoy works in some way, clearly I'm going to be opposed to it, unless it confers an ever greater benefit on me than the loss.

Certainly publishers would like nothing more than for everyone to burn their books, so that they'd have to go out and get new ones -- publishers would make a lot of money without having to spend anything (save the cost of materials). Yet no one would take a request to do so seriously, as it's so one-sided.

We respect copyrights generally, not because of the effort the author has invested -- there's plenty of laboriously-made flops that no one feels obligated to support -- but because doing so up to a certain point produces the best balance of outcomes for all involved. Of course, that isn't to say our copyright scheme is perched on that optimal point now.

For further reading, perhaps something by Hume or Bentham on utilitarianism?

So, where is your justification?

[Anonymous Coward]

it was perfectly all right to copy creative works.

When and what? Please provide examples.

We all enjoy breathing air, I'm sure. We'd all laugh heartily at people who not only were selling canned air for general consumption, but who were insisting that we were depriving them of potential profits by not using theirs.

That isn't theft. That is supply and demand. There is a (near) infinite supply of "free" air, so there is no need/reason to purchase canned air (except for cleaning dust off your computer). By the way, ever drink bottled water? Bet that is a chuckle.

Software is not air. It is not created and recycled as a natural process of our ecosystem. It is consciously created through the work and effort of others. Your analogy doesn't work.

I don't mind an author trying to make money, but where it diminishes my ability to enjoy works in some way, clearly I'm going to be opposed to it,

Then don't purchase the work. We live in a capitalist society. Supply and demand. We want a good, we pay for it. We don't want the good, or don't think it is worth the price, we don't buy it. If the seller is interested in selling to us, they will make it more attractive to us.

Own up to your actions. Don't try to justify them, the "people in charge" won't believe you anyway.

Tolkein

[Anonymous Coward]

Once I bought paperback in the SF section of my local bookstore, an Ace paperback, The Two Towers. Turned out it was the middle volume of a trilogy, The Lord of the Rings. After I bought the third volume, when I went shopping for the first volume, I was surprised that Ballentine Books was publishing the same books as Ace. This was, in my experience, unprecedented, there just wasn't duplication between Ace and Ballentine.

On the back of the Ballentine edition was a short note asking for consideration for "authors, living authors, anyway" as concretely exemplified by royalties. I bought the Ace book anyway, because I had the first two already.

Well, I've bought that trilogy repeatedly through the years, by the '80's Tolkein's message disappeard from the back cover of the Ballentine paperbacks.

I don't see that British authors sell any better in the US than they did before WIPO, but those that still do might just profit more. Somehow, I'm not sure they wrote less then, even though authors as far back as Dickens complained bitterly about being asked to sign unauthorised editions of their books on tours (no doubt promoted by publishers of authorised editions).

Software isn't supply and demand either...

[Anonymous Coward]

That isn't theft. That is supply and demand. There is a (near) infinite supply of "free" air, so there is no need/reason to purchase canned air (except for cleaning dust off your computer).

Supply and demand? There is also a (near) infinite supply of a given piece of software. It costs nearly nothing to reproduce. The differences between air and software have nothing to do with supply and demand, except that the government allows the creator of a work to artificially reduce the supply.

You aren't a coder, that's for sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

The important point is that software costs a lot to produce. Even open-source software requires people to have some kind of income so that they can afford to work on nifty free projects all day long. It's not that the government allows the creator of a work to artificially reduce the supply, it's that the creator made that work to get paid. They, the creator, made that decision. The government is just their enforcer. You, the recipient of the work, don't get to make that decision. Why? Because you didn't do anything to bring that work into being, and when you don't pay for the copy that you use, you're depriving that creator of his rightful due. Unless you are willing to work for free at whatever job you do, I don't really see how you can argue that someone else doesn't deserve to get paid.

Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

I also object to the terms 'piracy', and 'theft' when dealing with copyright infringement. The marginal cost of IP is zero or close to zero. There is no economic consequence of me copying software that I wouldn't have bought anyway. Yes, it's morally wrong and I'm not endorsing it - I'm a contract developer myself, but I'm realistic. Theft would be if I walked into a store and walked out with merchandise. Piracy, BTW, is robbing people on the high seas, which doesn't have much to do with computers at all.

Nobody knows how much money is lost to copyright infringement - but those who say that each unauthorized copy of software amounts to lost revenue are kidding themselves. Does MS really think that every college student would buy a $600 office package if it wasn't available illegally? Really, what choice do people have when .DOC is the de facto standard?

I guess we're talking about games.. I think developers have to be realistic here. Most users buy their software, a few will always copy it. Having an online game helps, because you can authenticate a CD key - this is perhaps the only reliable copy protection measure. Overly restrictive copy protection is a burden on legitimate users, while infringers bypass it anyway. Laws like the DMCA stifle fair use.

Re:Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, what choice do people have when .DOC is the de facto standard?

Wordpad?

Et tu, SEGA?

[MsGeek]

Wow, I feel like a total mark now. So SEGA was really behind this all? Crap.

"The Dreamcast Coder Cable is not a Sega licensed product. It is an unauthorized, black-market peripheral for Sega Dreamcast hardware and we do not condone its use or sale. Sega gives our full and complete support to U.S. customs in their efforts to stop piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Sega stands by our position that piracy is a serious crime and must be stopped. Sega supports a creative team of developers and we aim to protect their intellectual and creative properties in order to deliver the best possible gaming experience to our consumers."

Yeah, right guys...what about the creative team of developers who are trying to keep your platform you strangled in its crib alive? Fsck y'all. You can take my serial cable when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

The BSD, DCLinux and KOS developers will continue regardless of your lameness. With or without your approval. You could have bucked the trend and encouraged homebrew development. Hell, that was the unofficial line at SEGA US. With this statement, you guys are just as bad as Sony and Nintendo and Microsoft and the rest of that greedy lot.

There's a great gaijin colloquialism you should know about. It goes like this: "cutting your nose to spite your face." That's precisely what you are doing here.

Re:Et tu, SEGA?

[marsman57]

Oh come on, you can't be as inept to expect Sega to support anything that undermines their money making potential. A good example was when, Sony released a developer version of the PlayStation called the Yaroze (that may not be the exact name) in Japan. They charged several hundred dollars US over system costs. This covered potential profits to an extent. What I'm saying is that Sega is a company that still wants to make money off their system, not an open-source firm. I believe the reason that developers chose Sega was not their tendency to look the other direction, but because of the ease of hacking the system and producing CD media without mod chips that have to be updated constantly to play new commercial media.
As a long time gamer, I support open-source gaming productions because they are a nice addition to the community I think, but I believe it is very naive to expect a company to put their endorsement behind something they make NO money off of. Now if THEY sold the serial cable otoh they may support it limitedly. It's the same situation as how Sony won't support other controllers and memory cards even though many of them are not likely to damage the system in any way, and they can void a warranty if these products are used even if they are totally unrelated to the cause.
In conclusion, I believe that someone should judge their video game console choices on how fun games are only judging in other factors minimally. If one is only getting the system to write software and hack the system, then would it matter if the company is behind you... it never mattered before to the many that have hacked systems before.

Brandon