Opening Doors With the DMCA

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

By Katie Dean
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,61232,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3
01:54 PM Nov. 14, 2003 PT

Wired News

A universal garage door opener is not in violation of the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, even if used on a system made by another
company, a U.S. District Court ruled Thursday.  The court ruled on a
dispute between Skylink Technologies, the manufacturer of a universal
remote control for garage door openers, and Chamberlain Group, the maker
of garage door opener systems.  The court ruled on a dispute between
Skylink Technologies, the manufacturer of a universal remote control for
garage door openers, and Chamberlain Group, the maker of garage door
opener systems. ... "Under Chamberlain's theory, any customer who loses
his or her Chamberlain transmitter, but manages to operate the opener
either with a non-Chamberlain transmitter or by some other means of
circumventing the rolling code, has violated the DMCA," reads the opinion
from Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer of the Northern District of Illinois U.S.
District Court. "In this court's view, the statute does not require such a
conclusion."

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