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.

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.

Re:Publish the pinouts! :)

[Psx29]

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

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

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?

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.

"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: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.

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: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: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

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: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. :)

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.)

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.

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.