[free-sklyarov] Security warning draws DMCA threat

[mickey]

Seth Finkelstein wrote:

>But I don't
>see how a general file format fits, as something that relies on "the
>authority of the copyright owner", as a general proposition.
>  
>
I agree, but it 'fits' anyway because it sounds like complicated 
technology to most people.  Granted, file formats can be complicated, 
and some are more wierd than others. Making a file format that is 
extremely wierd, like a DVD, is a hurdle more because it is not publicly 
documented rather than it's complexity.

All file formats are complicated, and so is the software that uses them, 
and so is the machine on which it runs. All of it is technical, and if 
you consider using any of it as a measure to "protect" a set of data, 
then it is going to be covered by 1201. As in:

<DA> File formats are complicated technologies. We made our files 
specially complicated to protect our investment. Now these hackers want 
to unleash their "cat" commands on our DVD movies. </DA>

>	This is where I think it'll be a mistake to go down a path
>talking about everything-is-a-copy-control-device, and thus
>so-DMCA-applies-to-everything. No, that's an error in my view, and I
>fear it'll be dismissed as nonsensically alarmist.
>  
>
You are correct, it is being dismissed. Unfortunately, I think that the 
need for alarmism is coming. In the long term, I am concerned that most 
things in life will have a copy-control aspect because nearly everything 
is copyrightable or patentable. A sound, a picture, a story, a slogan, a 
shirt, a coffee mug, a lawn mower. Some of it is copyable at home now, 
others in time, and most things eventually.

It used to be implied, at least it seemed that way to me, that the 
mechanism for enforcement of copyright law was meant to work primarily 
in the commercial arena.  But what about personal use, at home? The 
present meanings of "gain" and "harm" are stretched so far that any 
application of the law can be imagined.

The real fun, I think, will begin when we can buy a cheap printer that 
prints the blue jeans you scanned when they were new (or faded just 
right). What do you think, maybe ten years away?

Mickey