[plug] Re: Aussie DMCA is here now!

[The Thought Assassin]

On Fri, 25 Aug 2000, Darrell Horrocks wrote:
> DMCA is the American FLA for Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
> Is supposedly an upgrade to the copyright act so that it deals with the
> computer age.
> It seems pretty tight and almost draconian, but doesn't take away the
> concept of "fair use".
No, it just provides the legal framework for the copyright protection
racket industry to take it away themselves.

> EXCEPT that the act has a clause that denies decrypting a work or
> using a "circumvention device".
Not to mention creating a device which can do this, or discussing how a
device might be created, even if there are other purposes then the
decryption. Not to mention sharing such a device with someone else, or
even giving hints on where one might be able to obtain such a device or
such information. It also does not require that what is being circumvented
is actually copy protection - CSS encryption, for example, is access
protection, intended to prevent the data on the disk being used by the
people who have bought it. It does not, in fact, make any attempt to
prevent it being copied by/for those who do not own the disk.

> This is currently the issue with regard to the DeCSS program, as people
> should be able to decrypt works to make their own backups, use for
> papers etc, but this is currently denied by the the act.
As, in fact, is making (or buying/selling) a DVD player in order to view
your own disc in your own house - ironic, really, when the plaintiffs in
the case are largely responsible for the present manufacture/sale of DVDs.

> Of course the DVD producers love this! ;-)
Well if they didn't like, it, they'd have bought a better one by now.

> Please feel free to correct me...I can't find the relevent links atm, but it
> appears that the anti-circumvention clause is word-for-word with the American
> one.
I haven't managed to find it yet. Not sure I even want to know. :)

> I will echo the doomed sentiment.
There is one hell of an echo in here. Not quite so much of an echo as is
apparently present in our politicians' heads, though.

-Greg Mildenhall