5 ms·

This is interoperability. At the very least this is a gray area.

by keyme 10y ago

acdha 10y ago
Those are potentially why the lawsuit would fail if you're lucky. You'd still have to fight it at ruinous cost for a small business – and expect customers to disappear if there's any chance they'd be included.
criddell 10y ago
This seems exactly like the type of situation for which the Librarian of Congress would carve out a DMCA exemption.
- mwexler 10y ago
  Perhaps better with the word "should" instead of "would"...
- pavel_lishin 10y ago
  Huh, I did not know that Librarian of Congress was actually a title/position.
  - stevenbedrick 10y ago
    It is! And our current Librarian, Carla Hayden, is really incredible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian_of_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian_of_Congress If I may go into fanboy mode for a moment, I'd like to say that in my opinion the Library itself is one of the crown jewels of the federal government. It is also definitely worth a visit if you're ever in DC. They give free tours of the Jefferson building, and besides the beautiful architecture of the building itself, there are some very interesting exhibits on display. There's a surprising amount to see, and the staff are great- very knowledgable and friendly. Besides its main missions of supporting congressional research and acting as the central repository library, the LoC also does a ton of great research on media preservation and archival practices... I got to tour one of their labs once- in one room I talked with an expert in the chemistry of inks used in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the next room heard from other people who specialized in CD and audiotape manufacturing, who could talk about how specific manufacturing plants in Japan changed processes from year to year and how that affected the archival lifetime of their products. Just amazing stuff, and that wasn't even scratching the surface.
ska 10y ago
"Gray area" here means: budget an awful lot of money for lawyers. Doesn't mean it's not a good idea, but being naive about it won't get you anywhere useful.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  And to be clear, don't expect to win after that awful lot of money is spent. The law makes it really hard to succeed on these types of issues, and judges generally have very stringent/impractical interpretations (such as the interpretation that RAM copies are sufficiently fixed to infringe copyright).

This is interoperability. At the very least this is a gray area.

by keyme 10y ago

This is interoperability. At the very least this is a gray area.

acdha 10y ago

Those are potentially why the lawsuit would fail if you're lucky. You'd still have to fight it at ruinous cost for a small business – and expect customers to disappear if there's any chance they'd be included.

criddell 10y ago

This seems exactly like the type of situation for which the Librarian of Congress would carve out a DMCA exemption.

mwexler 10y ago
Perhaps better with the word "should" instead of "would"...
pavel_lishin 10y ago
Huh, I did not know that Librarian of Congress was actually a title/position.
- stevenbedrick 10y ago
  It is! And our current Librarian, Carla Hayden, is really incredible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian_of_Congress https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Librarian_of_Congress If I may go into fanboy mode for a moment, I'd like to say that in my opinion the Library itself is one of the crown jewels of the federal government. It is also definitely worth a visit if you're ever in DC. They give free tours of the Jefferson building, and besides the beautiful architecture of the building itself, there are some very interesting exhibits on display. There's a surprising amount to see, and the staff are great- very knowledgable and friendly. Besides its main missions of supporting congressional research and acting as the central repository library, the LoC also does a ton of great research on media preservation and archival practices... I got to tour one of their labs once- in one room I talked with an expert in the chemistry of inks used in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the next room heard from other people who specialized in CD and audiotape manufacturing, who could talk about how specific manufacturing plants in Japan changed processes from year to year and how that affected the archival lifetime of their products. Just amazing stuff, and that wasn't even scratching the surface.

ska 10y ago

"Gray area" here means: budget an awful lot of money for lawyers. Doesn't mean it's not a good idea, but being naive about it won't get you anywhere useful.

cookiecaper 10y ago
And to be clear, don't expect to win after that awful lot of money is spent. The law makes it really hard to succeed on these types of issues, and judges generally have very stringent/impractical interpretations (such as the interpretation that RAM copies are sufficiently fixed to infringe copyright).