AP: Court upholds ban on DVD-cracking code. But Hollywood studios, looking to protect their coveted content, disagreed. A lower court found the harm to Hollywood outweighed the free speech protections and the appeals court agreed.
AP: Lawsuit by professor who challenged anti-piracy laws dismissed. Brown ignored evidence that showed Felten and other researchers were being cowered by legal threats from the RIAA, Cohn said. Graduate students working with him have their projects on hold and another scientist has delayed publishing a book about the findings, Cohn said.
The news just gets worse and worse for people who care about freedom.
In the DVD case, the appeals court appeals court has joined the chorus behind a law that is ruinous of fair use and even free speech. How can such things happen? In the Felten case, the judge allowed the record industries’ blatant bull — a claim that Felten hadn’t been threatened — to stand.
It all comes back to a pernicious law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. A Republican Congress and President Clinton, a Democrat, willingly placed themselves in the pocket of the entertainment and software industries. Neither cared an iota about the traditional rights of information users, and the politicians sold us all out on behalf of industries that transcend greed.
The Corley DVD case now allows the banning of Web links in some circumstances. What could possibly be more corrosive of free expression?
The Felten case means that researchers need permission from the entertainment industry — a precedent that will surely spread to other industries; just watch — to publish research. What could be more corrosive to the public good?
Hollywood, the record companies and the software industry love the DMCA, because it allows them to stomp out innovation that might threaten their business models. The DMCA will do more damage to your rights, and to society, than you can possibly imagine.
When will you care enough to contact your member of Congress? How about right now?