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EFF Reviews 5 Years Under The DMCA

Posted by timothy on from the an-icy-wind dept.

briaydemir writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a new report, Unintended Consequences: Five Years under the DMCA, detailing how the DMCA has stiffled competition, innovation, scientific research, and fair use. The original news release is here, and the report is also available as a PDF. Check it out if you want a good summary of all the DMCA cases over the past five years."

9 of 241 comments (clear)

  1. Time to go. by typobox43 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This article really shows why it is time for the DMCA to go. Anyone who happens to create any sort of device that someone figures out a way to use it to circumvent anything can be sued under the DMCA. (See also the Sklyarov incident.) Remember when someone discovered that you could use a Sharpie to circumvent the copy protection on a CD? Manufacturers/programmers/whatever should never be responsible for what anyone does outside the intended uses.

    1. Re:Time to go. by Omega037 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      **Manufacturers/programmers/whatever should never be responsible for what anyone does outside the intended uses.**

      This is also the reason that gun manufacturers can't be held responsible for crimes commited with guns. If the intended use is hunting or self protection, then they cannot be held responsible for any other use. However, if there is reasonable evidence to suggest that the guns have a forseealbe intended use to commit crimes, the manufacturer can be held responsible. This is why the more powerful assault rifles and machine guns are illegal to be sold to civilians.

      The same law should apply to digital technology. A hacking tool like a port scanner should be legal as it can have an intended use to check your own network for security holes. However, a trojan horse program is obviously intended for illegal remote access to a computer, and should be illegal.

    2. Re:Time to go. by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is why the more powerful assault rifles and machine guns are illegal to be sold to civilians.

      A civillian can purchase a fully automatic firearm provided he undergoes an FBI background check, gets fingerprinted, and pays the $250 per year license fee. It is perfectly legal (in the US) for any law abiding civillian to own a machine gun. It's been this way since 1934.

      Even more to the point, the VAST majority of the firearms used to commit crimes are 6 shot revolvers. They were churned out like hoola hoops for about 60 years and are still plentiful and cheap on the black market. Banning firearms is no more about controlling crime than the DMCA is about stopping malicious copyright infringement.

      A hacking tool like a port scanner should be legal as it can have an intended use to check your own network for security holes. However, a trojan horse program is obviously intended for illegal remote access to a computer, and should be illegal.

      No program in and of itself should be illegal. It shuold only be illegal if one uses them in a manner that is, well illegal. You should be able to create any virus, trojan or system hijacker you wish, as soon as you use them on someone else's system is when you cross the line.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  2. Laws not thought out... by MisanthropicProggram · · Score: 5, Insightful
    As was explained to me by a Lawyer who worked for Congress at one time, most laws are the result of knee-jerk reactions to public/corporate demand. Unfortunately, not much thought goes into the consequences of these laws. They just want to keep their jobs.

    Another problem is that Congress makes some of these laws so vague as to leave too much interpretation up to the judges who try cases under these laws. Unfortunately, organizations such as the EFF don't have the clout or the resources that the corps do.

    I have to stop now before I go on a rant ;-)

    --

    There is no spoon or sig.

    1. Re:Laws not thought out... by Meden+Agan · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Unfortunately, organizations such as the EFF don't have the clout or the resources that the corps do.
      And that's why they need all the support they can get! If you have any interest in this issue, please seriously consider donating to the EFF. Just think how much it would help if a fraction of slashdot readers donated $10 or $20. Of course when I donate to organizations like this I often wonder if the money gets squandered, but what's $10 in the grand scheme of things?
  3. What I'd like to know... by bad_fx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I'd really like to know is just how "unintended" some of these consequences were... *shrug*

  4. Excessive punishments by damacer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One of the things that bothers me most about laws like the DMCA and the NET (no electronic theft) act is the excessive punishments they put in place for various violations.

    For example, the DMCA makes it a felony to circumvent a copy protection device. And, similarly, the NET act makes it a felony to share copyrighted materials via a service like Kazaa with a possible 5 year prison term.

    Regardless of whether the things out lawed by legislation like this really should be out lawed or not, the punishments really need to be adjusted to fit the crime. Neither getting your dvd player to play dvd's from europe, nor sharing the latest Eminem song should even carry the possiblity of landing you several months little less several years in the slammer. Okay, the Eminem case is iffy, but otherwise...

  5. Steinway left Germany and came to America by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    . . . because they were in a dispute with the painter's guild. Steinway painted their pianos. The painter's guild claimed this as a violation of their guild rights.

    Steinway said, "Fuck this shit" (Well, the German equivilent actually), and came to America. In the process making America the center of a cultural technology that had previously been a European monopoly.

    America is making such inovative freedom illegal. It will reap the consecquences, just as did Europe.

    The DMCA was written entirely to protect existing vested interests. When you do so you automatically restrict (even if that wasn't your intent) development of other interests that spur economic growth.

    The end result is stagnation with all power and wealth gradually making its way into a few hands.

    Welcome to the economic algae pond, Brother.

    KFG

  6. You'd think better of the EFF by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful
    What's with the use of the word "pirate" all throughout this document?

    Congress meant to stop copyright pirates from defeating anti-piracy protections added to copyrighted works

    Rather than focusing on pirates, many copyright owners have wielded the DMCA to hinder their legitimate competitors.

    This document collects a number of reported cases where the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA have been invoked not against pirates, but against consumers, scientists, and legitimate comp-etitors.

    The details of section 1201, then, were a response not just to U.S. treaty obligations, but also to the concerns of copyright owners that their works would be widely pirated in the networked digital world.

    According to Blizzard, the bnetd software has been used by some to permit networked play of pirated Blizzard games.


    The DMCA has nothing to do with maritime law. It was not enacted to protect cargo ships or the spanish armarda. "Pirate" is a propaganda term used by copyright owners to imply that unauthorized copying is the equivilent of murder and theft on the high seas. The message is clear: only a vicious enemy of the people would do unauthorized copying. To a lesser degree the term "protection" is also a propaganda term to describe what copyright owners do in restricting our freedom. These terms are an important weapon of people who support the DMCA and other stifling laws as they encourage informers to rat people out to the non-official police forces the copyright owners fund.

    All in all, you'd think the EFF would be too smart to play their game.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.