Brilliant DMCA side effect
Crappy DRM company says the DMCA forces you to buy their technology instead of building your own because not buying their technology is a circumvention of an effective copyright tool.
The thing is, I think they’re right. I mean, it’s stupid, but then so is the DMCA.
There are some other provisions (which seem to not apply), but the crux of it is:
“No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that–
`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of
circumventing a technological measure that effectively
controls access to a work protected under this title;”
It explicitly does NOT say “copy the work”, it says “circumvent the technology”. “Circumvent” is not the word they were looking for.
In fact, now that I think about it, convincing someone that DRM is bad is also a violation, as that may be interpreted as offering a service that is primarily design for the purpose of circumventing technological protection. Crap.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/05/10/afx3708595.html
(via boingboing.)
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[Source: Adam Fields (weblog)]