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

Why not?

[Registered Coward v2]

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

Am I now of "a piratical nature"?

[medcalf]

My six-year old will be thrilled! Arrrh.

"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.

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: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.