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

If this is true...

[joshjs]

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

-1, dump it

[wiredog]

This has already appeared on the Other Site.

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.

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