Bruce Perens Plans On-Stage DMCA Violation

cyber_rigger writes: "From this article at infoworld Bruce Perens said he plans to break the DMCA during a presentation on digital rights management (DRM) Friday afternoon at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in San Diego. Technically, under the DMCA, Perens' explanation of the technology makes him liable for a fine of US$500,000. You have to admire his spirit."

Comments

Do not try this at home

[Anonymous Coward]

.. it is illegal
and morally wrong

Definition of Spirit in this case

[flipflapflopflup]

Spirit (noun)
The coming together of balls and stupidity.

My question for Mr. Perens

[devphil]

[...]similar to the case with Felten, because the presentation will occur at a conference that is charging attendees, both Perens and the show organizers could be subject to criminal charges in addition to a fine.

[...]

Perens said he is making a habit out of testing the limits of the DMCA, mainly to show just how trivial most DRM technologies are. Last year at the O'Reilly conference, he delivered a presentation during which he showed attendees the slides that got Sklyarov arrested.

Damn, Bruce, how do you walk with balls that big?

Re:My question for Mr. Perens

[warmcat]

I have only slightly smaller balls than that, and I am able to walk because my wife keeps them in a jar.

Re:My question for Mr. Perens

[darien]

I think secretly Perens wants to be the hero of the anti-DMCA movement.

If this is how he goes about his secret plans, God help us if he ever decides to do anything overt!

US

[dark-br]

America: Home of the free (and the DMCA, MPAA, RIAA...)

Spirit?

[mccalli]

Technically, under the DMCA, Perens' explanation of the technology makes him liable for a fine of US$500,000. You have to admire his spirit.

Never mind the spirit. You have to admire his bank balance...

Cheers,
Ian

And after the presentation...

[CLIT]

He'll put on his Village People outfit and sing "It's fun to violate the D-M-C-A!".

Good luck. I hope he gets further than Sklyarov.

Where do I send the money?

[Sly Mongoose]

OK, I suppose half a million of us will all have to chip in a buck to bail his arse out of Jug. So where do I send the dollar?

Re:Atta Boy....

[markbthomas]

Or perhaps the newspapers will get to print:

"American Man Arrested For Playing a DVD."

Sounds like something from the Onion...

Re:Nice stunt

[fyonn]

Do you consider those who threw tea into the Boston river 'childish' as well ?

well, us brits did ;)

you know, many people think that britain doesn't celebrate thanksgiving. of course it does. it's just that our thanksiving is on the 4th of july...

hohoho

well, I thought it was funny..

dave

Re:Why is it illegal?

[oingoboingo]

In short, what you do own is the mass of carbon, silicone, and assorted metals,

whoa buddy...i'd like to take a look at your DVD collection! I wanna see the behind the scenes special for 'Double-D Delights'.

Bruce = Open Source Jesus?

[caluml]

Doesn't it say something about this in the Bible?

"Bruce gave his life, so others might watch DVDs on their Linux boxen..."

Magic Marker Time

[alanjstr]

Why do I have a strong feeling he's just going to use a black marker on an audio cd?

Re:If they don't shut him up first.

[White Shade]

I can just see it now ...

"Man arrested, jailed, charged for Posession of 6lbs of illegal DVD Player, street value $500,000 or more, as well as assorted paraphernalia" ...

sounds a bit dodgy to me

revolution!

[Vodak]

What he thinks will happen...
1. He will be arrested in a massive arrest were he will be beat by the police for breaking the DMCA

2. We will become a political prisonor and the geeks of the worlds will unit in a rage.

3. In protest the IT workers of the world will stop doing thier jobs and start hacking the systems they work for crippling the systems of the world.

4. The world now in chaos from geek rage will fold to any and all of the silly geek deamdns including the head of Bill gates.

5. World Peace.

What will happen....
1. People will point at him and giggle.

Re:Is the DMCA Constitutional?

[certron]

"We should make "Coding" into a religion perhaps, then we could publish books with code in them that couldn't be deems illegal? They would be infringing on our rights? How about we call it CowBoyNeilism?"

How about Codeboy Nihlism? Hm...
Nihilism (edited):
2. The doctrine that nothing can be known; scepticism as to all knowledge and reality. [1913 Webster]
1. a revolutionary doctrine that advocates destruction of the social system for its own sake. [wordnet]

Hm... Maybe a little too close to Slashdot reality at times...

Re:You have to admire his spirit."

[zevans]

One of the problems is, of course, that if the entire "people with a clue" industry is jailed, you are left with a bunch of "people without a clue" trying to run all the high-tech infrastructure.

Are you familiar with the telco multinational "British Telecom?" :-)