UCITA Debates Trudge Onward

prockcore writes: "CNet is running a story on a debate involving proposed changes to the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA). Changes include altering Opt-in/Opt-out rules, removing limits on public criticism, removing some limits on reverse engineering, among others."

Comments

Software licenses are wastes of ink/pixels anyway.

[Teknogeek]

There is nothing a license SHOULD prohibit that currently existing law does not already prohibit.

The whole POINT of a software license was originally to keep people from making illegal copies...hence the 'book' licenses of yore.

Interestingly, copyright law ALREADY prohibits that. If I sold a piece of software with no license agreement, and someone copied it and distributed it over the Internet for no charge, I could still sue them for copyright infringement. The existence (or lack thereof) of a software license does not change this basic fact.

Now, look at today's software licenses. The original point has been lost, and they are now used as chains with which to bind those who purchase software. (GPL excluded, of course.)

The fact that the UCITA is being amended, and not completely thrown out, shows that people are, as always, missing the forest for the trees.

You are a jacktard

[Anonymous Coward]

You are a complete imbecile, if you believe encyphering the content of a DVD prevents anyone from making verbatim bit-for-bit copies of the DVD, illegally. One encyphered bit image looks like any other, and it's possible (as has been demostrated by China) to burn 10,000 copies of "Titanic" on DVD, without every unscrambling the content.

The only thing DeCSS permits that is not already possible is decoding the data on non-approved players, whether they are software players on Linux or players which would otherwise not play the DVD because of region coding.

The first translates into a larger market. The second translates into the loss of the ability to implicitly impose export tarrifs through differential pricing in international markets.

For your information, it is unconstitutional to impose export tarrifs.

ACLU membership

[vex24]

Join the ACLU if you think this stuff is bullshit... I joined with a monthly contribution of $10. I never know it's gone. I figure I vote with my dollars when I buy a Pepsi or a pair of Nike's, I'd better vote for the good guys with at least a few bucks a month...