4 ms·
What made this illegal before?
by yellowbkpk 16y ago
What made this illegal before?
- latortuga 16y agoDMCA. Circumventing a DRM system for any reason is illegal under DMCA.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- daeken 16y agoNo no no no no. Please guys, let's be very clear about what the DMCA does and does not do; misinformation hurts the case against it considerably. The DMCA, among many other things, makes the circumvention of copyright protection illegal -- that much is true. However, not "for any reason". There are numerous clear exceptions in this, e.g. for the purpose of interoperability. These are very important and often overlooked, but need to be taken into account when talking about the DMCA as a whole.
- yellowbkpk 16y agoThanks. I realized the answer to my question almost immediately after I posted it but I hope someone else will find the information useful.
- _delirium 16y agoI don't think that's entirely true. The DMCA has a bunch of exceptions for things like "interoperability" and "research" that are somewhat vaguely defined, which someone who was subject to a DMCA suit could use as a defense. This rulemaking process carves out a subset of those where the Copyright Office has determined that the activity definitely falls under those exceptions. But unless I'm mistaken, I think it's possible to argue other uses as well--- but you'd have to argue in court why your use was primarily for interoperability purposes. The advantage of doing things that the Copyright Office already declared to fall under those exceptions is that you wouldn't have to argue that point at all, because the issue was already decided.