Thursday, January 09, 2003

 
A bit of a recap of events. Elcomsoft not guilty under DMCA. Norway courts finds DVD Jon not guilty of anything by creating DeCSS, the software that broke DVD encryption so DVDs can be played on nonlicensed devices (Linux PCs). Creative Commons licenses released with Jack Valenti's stamp of approval. Mere months from a Supreme Court ruling on Eldred. Boucher bill would rewrite DMCA to make circumvention for legal, fair use purposes (In other words, DeCSS) not a crime. AND he gets high techn and consumer electronics industries to sign on in a big way. Is the pendulum swinging back?
posted by Richard Koman 4:42 PM Comment

 
Speaking of Rick Boucher, I just finished an interview with the Virginia congressman and leading Washington defender of cyber rights. It should be on oreillynet.com early next week.
posted by Richard Koman 3:59 PM Comment

 
Here's an article by Declan McCullagh noting that Lexmark is using DMCA to try to stop after-market toner vendors from stealing the toner resale business. Apparently, Static Control sells chips to third-party vendors. These chips trick Lexmark (Dell) printers into thinking the third party toner cart is from Lexmark. Lex figures that these chips are "circumventing" the security mechanism they have in place. To my way of thinking, though, it's a problem that it's not a copy protection device, but rather a competition-blocking device. Increasingly, the DMCA is being used as a monopoly protection law. Is this what Lessig meant by "code plus law"? Is this what Boucher means when he says that DMCA inhibits innovation?
posted by Richard Koman 3:58 PM Comment

 
So, back to the blog after an extended holiday-laden break. The final version of my report on the Creative Commons launch is now up on O'Reilly Network.
posted by Richard Koman 3:51 PM Comment