The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) was “meant to stop copyright pirates from defeating Blog anti-piracy protections added to copyrighted works, and to ban “black box” devices intended for that purpose,” but “in practice, the anti-circumvention provisions have been used to stifle a wide array of legitimate activities, rather than to stop copyright piracy.” says the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF).
For further reading:
Unintended Consequences: Four Years under the DMCA
Intellectual Property - Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) Archive
What I don’t understand: Why is software special? Tools don’t commit crimes, people do. That is why we can still buy knives, guns, lock-picks, etc.
Make life difficult for those that want to hinder the “Future of Ideas” (a good book by Lawrence Lessig on the subject of code controlling how copyright and privacy really work, irrespective of the law). That is, don’t commit crimes, but challenge these companies at every step. Get involved, link to sites, and when the lawyers come, remove the links again. That keeps ’em busy, and costs ’em money.
I can’t believe we are supposed to buy hardware from other area codes, and import DVDs and console games from other area codes, in order to play non-localized version. I don’t understand how companies are morally justified to control the distribution of what they are selling.