4 ms·
1201(a)(2) prohibits selling tools that are either... - Only capable of breaking copy protection - Have minimal commercial utility other than to break copy pr
by kmeisthax 3y ago
1201(a)(2) prohibits selling tools that are either...
- Only capable of breaking copy protection
- Have minimal commercial utility other than to break copy protection
- Are advertised as being able to break copy protection
If you sold someone an aux cord with the marketing slogan "Copy music off Spotify and stop paying for your subscription", that'd violate 1201(a)(2) because of that third prong[0]. There's also plenty of copy protection circumvention tools that DON'T trip 1201(a)(2) because they aren't marketed as such and have noninfringing uses. For example, Google Chrome. You can use it to bypass right-click blockers because it lets you open Devtools without right-clicking. However, browsers have loads of commercial utility outside of this, and they don't specifically advertise their ability to get around annoying right-click scripts, so they're legal.
We don't normally contemplate this sort of thing because most DRM is specifically designed to be both obvious and separable from other permissible behavior. You cannot accidentally write a DVD decryptor that doesn't trip 1201(a)(2). This has led to people mistakenly assuming that the DMCA requires encryption to be involved or something for a copy protection circumvention tool to be illegal.
[0] I've actually seen this happen. There was someone selling VGA cables marketed as a way to copy Netflix.
- jameshart 3y agoSurprising then that Apple launched iTunes with the ‘rip. mix. burn.’ slogan in 2000 right after the DMCA was introduced.
- px43 3y agoThere was no copy protection being bypassed in that era, and ripping CDs was just a normal thing that people did to listen to music on their computer without having to worry about scratch discs etc.
- blangk 3y agoOr share them on soulseek libraries
- actionfromafar 3y agoApple had copy protection.
- sbuk 3y agoNot in 2001 when the commercials were airing - the iTunes Store was two years away...
- WWLink 3y agoApple only had copy protection (m4p files) if you bought music from the itunes store during the time period where their contract with the music companies demanded they do that. When that clause ended, they stopped doing it, and IIRC when you redownload music purchased during that era from apple, you'll now get unprotected m4a files instead. The files iTunes produced from ripping CDs were never copy protected.
- kmeisthax 3y agoIf you think that's crazy, a year prior Steve Jobs went up on stage at MacWorld and showed off a PlayStation emulator[0]. Today Apple has been extremely adamant in trying to kill off companies emulating iOS, specifically citing DMCA 1201 as some sort of right to not be emulated. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station
- jonhohle 3y agoSomewhere in my HDMI chain (Fire TV, Receiver, Splitter, HDMI capture), there is something that’s stripping/ignoring HDCP providing a throwback method of “time/format shifting” content from at least one of the big players. Obviously all of those components have other uses, but I’m happy one of them (probably the splitter or capture device) give me fair use back.
- actionfromafar 3y agoSome TVs with more than 1 HDMI input, has an internal bridge thing which you can tap for the HDCP stripped content. I’m told, of course.