DMCA Invoked Against Garage Door Openers

boijames writes "In the latest bit of DMCA lunacy, copyright guru David Nimmer turned me onto a case that his firm is defending, where a garage door opener company (The Chamberlain Group) has leveled a DMCA claim (among other claims) against the maker of universal garage door remotes (Skylink)."

Comments

The Facts

[Amsterdam Vallon]

1. Amount Cornell University Library pays for subscription to "Journal of Applied Polymer Science": $12,495.00

2. Amount charged to University Libraries for subscription to "Journal of Economic Studies": $13.40/page

3. Number of people who find the $13.40 per page ironic: 3 out of 4

4. Number of Project Gutenberg Etexts converted by voluteers: 3,551

5. Current "Cost" per Etext based on 3,481 texts: $2.87 per text

6. Number of Scientists worldwide boycotting Corporate Science Journals beginning September 2001: 26,000

7. Number of college and research institutions "Declaring Independence" by publishing themselves: 200

8. Number of days DMCA arrestee Dmitry Sklyarov spent in jail: 13

9. Number of jails he spent them in: 4

10. Amount charged to taxpayers for those 13 days: $4,000

11. Window of time Microsoft and the American Association of Publishers (AAP) can engage in
their cooperative Internet surveillance program: 24x7x365

12. Number of AAP members who apparently support the Internet surveillance program: 250

13. Number of "companies" which control the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA): 4

14. Number of Executive Directors who appear to control the DVD Copy Control Association: 1

15. Amount one company charges for eBook encryption security: $3,000

16. Number of letters one must rotate the alphabet to decrypt that book: 13 (ROT-13)

17. Amount recovered in recent "software raid" conducted by BSA.org against Minneapolis Company: $260,000

18. Number of disgruntled employees who may report you to the BSA resulting in a "software raid.": 1

19. Number of Irish software companies currently being sued by BSA.org: 7

20. Companies BSA represents in those cases: Adobe, Autodesk, Macromedia, Microsoft and Symantec

21. Number of cities included in July 2001 BSA "Truce" Campaign: 5

22. Number of states which experienced Raids conducted by FBI on July 24 commended by BSA: 9

23. Number of proported jobs lost from software piracy in study conducted by BSA.org: 109,000

24. Amount an eBook customer may be fined for a backup not permited by the Publisher: $250,000

25. Amount of time that customer might spend in jail: 5 years

26. Number of restrictions placed on "Alice in Wonderland" (public domain) eBook: 5

27. Maximum penalty for reading "Alice in Wonderland" aloud (possible DMCA violation): 5 years jail

28. Maximum penalty for having a "pirate" copy of "Planet of the Apes": 10 years jail/$2M fine

29. Average sentence for commiting Rape: 5 years

30. Yet another Slashdot editor Hell-bent on a crusade against laws that don't have anything to do with them -- Priceless

Re:This is good....

[ngoy]

OK, then how about I flame you for not knowing the reason for the big award in the hot coffee lawsuit: (blah blah blah)

Yet another fruity defender of the stupid. Guess what? I drink hot chocolate with coffee at work. This means I 1) either microwave some water or 2) get water from the cafeteria downstairs which is probably 10 degrees from boiling (it does make the styrofoam cup a little softer). Now the instructions on my Hershey's hot chocolate say "heat water for 1-1.5 minutes or until hot, but not boiling", while the directions on my Maxwell House/Kraft French Vanilla coffee mix say "Slowly pour 8 fl. oz. boiling water" over while stirring.

So by the reasoning of all the defenders of this stupid person, I can spill the coffee I made on myself, get 200+ degree burns, and sue Maxwell house because they are "negligently" endangering me by telling me to use boiling water. By the same token, I can sue Hershey's because I can heat the water to just "not boiling" and burn myself.

You know, I EXPECT restaurants to FOLLOW the instructions, and even MORE diligently. So unless their is some Federal law requiring that coffee be served at something less than just under boiling, or less than a scalding temperature, the stupid lady deserves nothing but ridicule and scorn, like most of the population has given her.

We had some stupid person here at work get a steam burn or something because she opened her food container from the microwave. Then she went to the nurse. Then it has to get reported to OSHA. So now we have these big signs on the microwaves that say "CAUTION Food or drink items may be hot when removed from this appliance"

Does no one have common sense anymore? Why do we have to legislate for the stupid? Seatbelt laws, childseat laws, helmet laws, etc...are all there not because intelligent people don't do it, but because stupid people 1) need things explained to them before they do it and 2) because having a law scares them SO MUCH that they will follow the rules, not because they KNOW to, but because the government TOLD them to. And yet here in Arizona I routinely see kids sitting in the back of trucks, being held by mom in the front seat. waving from the back seat, etc....

The punishment for being stupid should be death, or living with whatever happened to the idiots, not MORE LAWS AND LAWSUITS.