On Mon, 1 Apr 2002, Wayne M. Smith wrote:
The Digital
Millenium Copyright Act was no less ridiculous, and is now
Federal law. In the many times that law has been invoked, not one case
has involved the mass distribution pirates its proponents claimed to
target.
Wrong. 4500+ copies is "mass distribution."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/03/29/video-bootleg.htm
In any event, the DMCA was intended to address not only those who distribute copies, but
those who provide "circumvention devices"
that enable others to engage in mass distribution. Doesn't it make as much sense to
go after those involved in "mass distribution"
of the circumvention device, such as DeCSS?
Show me one instance in how DeCSS was used to copy movies in full DVD
digital quality, like the MPAA says. Never mind that you could do a
straight binary copy of the DVD without any decryption to re-distribute
it.
Now, ask how many people use DeCSS-based code to view DVD's becuase no
company wants to feed the MPAA money to sell a DVD player for their OS
(eg. Linux)
DeCSS is not intended for making copies, it's for guaranteeing fair-use
rights guaranteed by US Copyright law.
-- Pat