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StorageTek Blocks 3rd Party Maintenance with DMCA
bstone writes "According to LawGeek, a district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems. The court found that third party service techs who used the 'Maintenance Key' without StorageTek's permission 'circumvented' to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines."
Wiggum: "Once a man is in your home, anything you do to him is nice and legal."
Homer: "Is that so? Oh Flanders! Won't you join me in my kitchen? Heh heh heh heh."
Wiggum: "Uh...doesn't work if you invite them."
Flanders: "Hidily hey!"
Homer: "Go home."
Flanders: "Toodley-doo!"
-= If you fight Dragons long enough, you will become a Dragon =-
Your rights off-line seems more appropriate ;-)
1. Threaten to void the warranty, making your customers angry.
2. Consider it part of doing business, and raise prices since your profits used to be based mostly on product repairs. Again, makes customers angry.
3. Lock your product with proprietary technology and sue all those who would tamper with it. The average customer won't find out, and you most current customers will never hear of it.
Personally I would have tried Torx screws. Noooobody has torx screwdrivers.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Scalp um pale-face!
Stick Men
Why limit to software?
"AHA!! He used this circumvention device called 'screwdriver' to circumvent the protective casing of our device. Where are my lawyers?"
What will these companies do when our memories last longer than the DMCA?
Go bankrupt. And that is where they belong.
Usually convieniently "agreed to" by opening the box or clicking "yes", long after the purchase. The first, in a long string of catches.
Yeah
Think of the disks being the cat.
The EULA agreement is the, er, box.
You must agree to the EULA to install (measure) and test the software (cat).
But you can only return some software if you disagree to the EULA.
Hence whilst the disk is not installed, it is in a superpostion of working and not working! When you install (measure) the state of the software (cat) you create an irreversable process.
If it works (cat alive) you are ok!
If it doesn't work (cat dead) you are fked and cant send it back!
erm QED
(No 90 day warrenty, IT'S MEANT TO DO THAT)
Expect Darl McBridge to sue you for publishing his business plan.
You have got to admit, having a DMCA Hulk that smashes tards who pull a DMCA, and all those who go along with it, to a pulp would be damn satisfying.
Um, have you SEEN a Symmetrix? Are you sure you want just ANYONE touching that mass of drives, controllers and aluminum nastiness? Only with a sledgehammer, man...