3 ms·
It's too bad companies big and small didn't come together and successfully oppose the passage of the DMCA.
by shiroiushi 2y ago
It's too bad companies big and small didn't come together and successfully oppose the passage of the DMCA.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 2y agoMy understanding is that tech was politically weaker back then. Although there were some big tech companies, they didn’t have as much of a lobbying operation.
- wrs 2y agoAs I remember it, among other reasons, tech companies really wanted “multimedia” (at the time, that meant DVDs) to migrate to PCs (this was called the “living room PC”) and studios weren’t about to allow that without legal protection.
- worstspotgain 2y agoThere were a lot of questionable Federal laws that made it through in the 90s, such as DOMA [1], PRWORA [2], IIRIRA [3], and perhaps the most maddening to me, DSHEA [4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_of_Marriage_Act [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Wo... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_Immigration_Reform_and_Immigrant_Responsibility_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_Immigration_Reform_and... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_Education_Act_of_1994 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_Supplement_Health_and_...
- shiroiushi 2y ago"Questionable" is a very charitable term to use here, especially for the DSHEA which basically just legalizes snake-oil scams.
- RockRobotRock 2y agoNo snark, but what's wrong with the DMCA? From what I understand it, they took the idea that it's infeasible for a site to take full liability for user-generated copyright infringement (so they granted them safe harbor), but that they will be liable if they ignore take down notices.
- shiroiushi 2y agoThe biggest problem with it, AFAICT, is that it allows anyone who claims to hold a copyright to maliciously take down material they don't like by filing a DMCA notice. Companies receiving these notices have to follow a process to reinstate material that was falsely claimed, so many times they don't bother. There's no mechanism to punish companies that abuse this.
- worstspotgain 2y agoAmong other things, quoth the EFF: "Thanks to fair use, you have a legal right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment. But thanks to Section 1201, you do not have the right to break any digital locks that might prevent you from engaging in that fair use. And this, in turn, has had a host of unintended consequences, such as impeding the right to repair." https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/what-really-does-and-doesnt-work-fair-use-dmca https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/what-really-does-and-d...
- RockRobotRock 2y agoforgot about the anti-circumvention clause ;((( that's the worst
- CatWChainsaw 2y agoLouis Rossman is very against DMCA. It's used as a bludgeon against right to repair.