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On Friday 11 June 2004 18:47, Chris Gianelloni wrote: |
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> While it is |
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> questionable whether mp3 support is legal to distribute, the patent |
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> owners are not a monopolistic competitor of our product whom have shown |
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> that they are willing to use laws such as the DMCA to pursue "criminals" |
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> who bypass their security measures. |
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AFAIK Microsoft have never used the DMCA against anyone. They have never even |
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threatened to use it. Andrew Huang (the MIT xbox hacker guy) published a book |
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explaining how to bypass xbox security, and they didn't threaten him. The |
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xbox-linux site explains in detail how to bypass security and install linux, |
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and they haven't received a single threat or takedown notice from Microsoft. |
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Huang said "The thing I have to emphasize is that the book itself is not |
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criminal, it'd be like saying that breaking and entering is illegal, so you |
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can't write a book on how locks work." |
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xbox-linux say "The DMCA forbids circumventing copy protection, but this is |
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not our goal. We develop an alternative operating system for the Xbox gaming |
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console. A side product could be the ability to run unsigned code, but this |
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alone does not make it possible to play pirated copies of games." |
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A Microsoft spokesman said (translated) "Basically it is like this: You can |
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disassemble, chop, smash every product you buy; this is your personal |
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decision. I assume that there are very very few people who do that; but if |
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they want to do that, it's is their business." |
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The best reference is probably the judge in the Elcomsoft case, who advised |
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the jury that to violate the DMCA you must know that your actions are |
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illegal, and have a clear intent to violate the law. So it is actually up to |
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you - if you believe that your actions are illegal (and they are), and do |
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them anyway, then you are breaking the law. If you believe that your actions |
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aren't illegal (but they are), then you aren't breaking the law. Simple. |
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-- |
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