[Fwd: [ale] DMCA Protests]

[jonathan at xcorps.net (Jonathan Rickman)]

On Mon, 23 Jul 2001, Ned Williams wrote:

> Are we talking about a legimate constitutional issue with the DMCA or whining
> like a bunch of anti-capitalist socialist from Genoa here?


A little of both. The general idea of the DMCA is a good thing. The old
"information wants to be freeeee" thing doesn't fly with me. But the laws are
much too vague and lend themselves to corporate abuse. The first really high
profile arrest was made at DefCon. The man was arrested for "circumventing"
encryption methods used to secure documents. Basically, he cracked ROT-13.
WOW!!! This man MUST be stopped!!! Have any MP3s on your HDD right now??? You
could be arrested and charged. Oh, so you actually have the CDs they were ripped
from??? That's ok. We can't arrest you, but we can sue you. Sorry, the DMCA
really is that vague.

-- 
Jonathan Rickman
X Corps Security
http://www.xcorps.net


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