RE: Clarification (RE: "Fair Use" Is Getting Unfair Treatment)

["Rick Anderson" <rickand@unr.edu>]

> Rick's response below is  the argument used by the intellectual property
> industry.

Geez, that must mean that I sometimes agree with, er, the "intellectual
property industry" (but weren't we referring to it as the Copyright
Empire?).  I guess I'd better turn in my ALA membership card.  Oh wait,
that's right -- they came and took it away long ago.  I don't get it back
until John N. Berry III signs my Reeducation Certificate.

> You bought this to play on a CD player and got home and learned that it
> wouldn't work on the one you have because that's how I designed it-- Why
> that's too bad.

So is it your argument that if one company tries to protect its
intellectual property by means of a harebrained and easily-circumvented
encoding strategy, that proves the DMCA is invalid?  It doesn't seem to me
like the conclusion follows from the premise, but I may be missing part of
the argument.

Let me reiterate: I'm not necessarily a supporter of the DMCA, especially
in its present form.  But I do think publishers in the online environment
face a serious and legitimate problem in the protection of their
copyrights.  If I figure out a way to hack past the security measures of a
pricey database and I distribute the hacking instructions to the world,
what recourse does the copyright holder have without the DMCA (or
something like it)? Theoretically, the copyright holder could wait for
others to hack in and take content illegally and then pursue them
individually under copyright law, but let's be serious: that's no
protection at all.  For the sake of argument, let's grant that the DMCA is
stupid and wrong and fascist.  What's a better alternative?  I bet there
is one, but what is it and who is proposing it?

-------------
Rick Anderson
Director of Resource Acquisition
The University Libraries
University of Nevada, Reno      "That wasn't a Freudian slip;
1664 No. Virginia St.              it was a Jungian slip."
Reno, NV  89557                       -- Dr. Katz
PH  (775) 784-6500 x273
FX  (775) 784-1328
rickand@unr.edu