July 28, 2001

11:54 AM

The DMCA, a flawed law responsible for such things as the lawsuit against 2600 and adobe's attempt to prosecute Dmitry Sklyarov is spreading! Canada is starting hearings into its own version of the US's DMCA! Where will all this end? Via /.
posted by bytecode (5 comments total)

Yep, you're absolutely right. They also talk about prevention of circumvention of technologies, which is the biggest evil of the DMCA.

I have a feeling that the DMCA and all of the imitators will soon be bringing to a head the reinspection of the idea of copyright...

This is probably as good a time as any to mention that the EFF, after going nowhere with the Feds, is rejoining the protest movement.

There are many rallies planned as soon as today, including a Monday protest in San Francisco at the Federal Courthouse bldg.

I will be there. Anyone else care to join?
posted by fooljay at 2:12 PM on July 28, 2001

Oh, and you forgot to mention Felten vs RIAA in the list of DMCA strikes...
posted by fooljay at 2:20 PM on July 28, 2001

One more thing. Just found this and I think it's a great way to counter the lobbyists for the DMCA...
posted by fooljay at 2:34 PM on July 28, 2001

I think some of these things have to be looked at in a real world context. We all have locks on our houses and cars that are supposed to prevent people from going in and stealing our things. If circumvention technologies were outlawed, locksmiths would be out of a job, coathangers would be illegal and we would not be able to get back into own houses.

We're going to end up with a whole bunch of files on our computer that we can't get into because we forgot where we put our keys. Bastards.
posted by dave at 12:54 PM on July 29, 2001

Canada lacks any sort of copyright policy for digital works. It needs one. Countries must be able to protect the intellectual rights of their creators. As a writer, I would not want anybody to be able to freely distribute my work, unless I had decided to "donate my work" to society.

The concept of a digital copyright act is far from a bad one. As you say, the DMCA is "flawed", so let's hope and work to make sure that the Canadian act (and other 'imitators') is not so short-sighted and fascist. By dismissing such laws outright, you are doing a disservice to the authors, artists and coders who need their work to be protected.
posted by Marquis at 11:28 AM on July 30, 2001