Adobe Gets Hit By DMCA

Reeses writes "Adobe has asked a U.S. District court to allow them to embed ITC and Monotpye fonts in their documents, claiming "Adobe has asked the court to declare that Adobe's popular Acrobat product does not violate certain provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as claimed by ITC and Agfa Monotype." Which is interesting after the Skylarov/Elcomsoft debacle from a year or so ago. I guess they figured that it didn't apply to them since they enforced it."

Comments

Bit by their own dog

[EvilAlien]

This is a positive development.

It will show that poorly written laws with big teeth are dangerous to everyone, whether they are consumers, the non-consuming public, industry, or the politicians who support them.

Cross your fingers, maybe this is the beginning of the end for the DMCA.

Re:Maybe it's a good thing.

[DunbarTheInept]

Although the law in theory applies to corporations as if they were people, in practice it doesn't because there are fewer sentencing options to use against corporations. A person can be sentenced to prison, or in more barborous socities like the USA, even killed. A person can be fined a sum larger than the person's total financial worth (putting him in debt). On the other hand a corporation cannot. The only option for sentencing a corporation is either a fine, and that fine must be small enough that the corporation is actually able to pay it, or a dismantling of the corporation (which unlike an actual human being, doesn't have a personal fear of death, so that doesn't really matter.)

The risk that a corporation takes if it breaks a law is much smaller than the risk an actual flesh and blood person takes for doing the very same thing. It's gotten to the point where corporations typically view legal problems as just another operating expense, like paying the electric bill.

I want to see PERSONAL responsibility brought back into the justice system. If a high-level manager makes a decision that amounts to committing a crime, don't drag the company to court - drag HIM to court. If people knew that the things they do at work are things they will be held responsible for, they'd be a lot less willing to do things they know are wrong.