Copyright Wrongs

Last updated 3/29/02

What do I mean by copyright wrongs? I mean that the new laws (DMCA for one) and technology (CSS and Region coding in DVDs, watermarking in music) are being used to obliterate anything resembling fair use of copyrighted materials. As far as corporate copyright holders as a whole are concerned, you are a thief if you do not pay for access to thier works each and every time you access it. (Individuals tend to be much saner about this.) If you don't believe this, remember the now-defunct DIVX system from Circuit City? If that had succeeded to any degree, I doubt we would be able to compare the landscape now to what would have been. Given that that glaringly obvious hitch has failed, other things are in the works.

Many of you may not have heard of the First Sale doctrine, which says that once a copyright owner has sold you a copy of a work, they lose a certain amount of control of that copy of the work. With a blantant attempt of grabbing much more control having failed (DIVX), they copyright crowd are working on other methods. Some e-book providers will only sell you books that can be read by certain readers, that are bound to your identity somehow. You cannot loan out your copy of the book, and if anything destroys your identity key, you can kiss your e-book collection goodbye.

I am addressing this in the only rather minimal way I can. In each case, I am not buying in to something until the usage options make sense. I did not buy in to DVD until the idiotic region restrictions were rendered effectively non-existant. My list of e-book sites is composed exclusively of places that offer plain-text or open and convertible formats such as the DOC format for PalmOS handhelds. (This DOC is not the same as Micro$ofts DOC for their Word product.) When I got a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) I went for a PalmOS device because I could backup the data to any computer with a C compiler, where most other devices were Windows-exclusive or Windows/Mac only.

I am doing a rather major updating of the site at this time, this page will eventually be re-written with more coherence when I have time. My major effort now is to get the links more or less current.

News Links

This page will concentate on abuses of the copyright system, but there will be some crossover with the DVD links for technical and other information page. Just now the DVD stuff dominates here, but more areas will be adressed as I find articles of interest.

Dates are given in the US (MM/DD/YY) format.

News relating to Copy Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) is filed under Technical Stupidity.

News about CBDTPA (the legislation formerly known as SSSCA) is on its own page.

Here is a press release from the European Patent Office relating to software patents.

From C/Net::
DOJ stands with film industry in DVD cracking case by Lisa M. Bowman (2/22/01)
Hollywood dealt setback in DVD code case by Evan Hansen (12/14/00)

From CNN :
UCITA on legislative agenda in four states by Margret Johnson (1/26/01)

From EFF.org :
Law Professors' Amici Brief in "MPAA v. 2600" Case (Appox 1/25/01)

From? InfoWorld? :
Some new shrink-wrap license terms seem tailor-made for UCITA by Ed Foster (3/2/2001)
A world with UCITA may allow fine print to outweigh the right thing by Ed Foster (11/24/00) - And the sad thing is that people will probably not take this scenario seriously.
Legitimate concerns vs. free speech: Who defines the rules for the Net ring? by Ed Foster (10/27/00)
Hyperlinking on the Web? I am shocked, Louie, just quite simply shocked! by Sean M. Dugan (6/30/00)
Reactions passionate to DVD ruling by Sam Costello (8/18/00)

From LinuxWorld:
Microsoft unleashes piracy police: Are you safe? by Joe Barr (12/13/00)

The New York Times links have been removed because the site requires registration.

And here is a link the to the Princeton site telling about thier report of defeating the SDMI challenge.

From OSOpinion
First Amendment, Captive Markets: P2P's Real Issues by Dave Manchester (11/7/00)

From Salon.Com
SDMI: We're not hacked yet by Janelle Brown (11/8/00)
Another crack in the SDMI wall by Janelle Brown (10/22/00)
Cracked or not? The SDMI saga continues by Janelle Brown (10/19/00)

From Scientiic American
DVDs: Cease and DeCSS? by Wendy Grossman (May 2000?)

From USA Today :
Pamela Samuelson: Cyber-rights guardian by Elizabeth Weise (12/28/00)

From The Washington Times
Digital dilemma Editorial (11/13/00)

From The Washington Post :
Pat Schroeder's New Chapter by Linton Weeks (2/7/01) Things are getting further out of hand here.

From Wired Magazine :
Descramble That DVD in 7 Lines by Declan McCullagh (3/8/01)
Copyright or Copy Wrong? by Brad King (2/16/01)
Copyrights: Tech Blurs Control by Declan McCullagh (11/30/00)
Copyright Act Faces Big Test by Brad King (11/29/00)
DVD Piracy Judge Tells All by Declan McCullagh (11/17/00)
Fear of a Pay-Per-Use World?? by Oscar S. Cisneros (10/9/00)
Legislating Property of the Mind by Brad King (10/4/00)
Turning CueCat Into a Cool Cat by Leander Kahney (10/3/00)
Congress Next in Copyright Tiffs by Declan McCullagh (9/12/00)
Reno Talks Tough on Piracy by Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead (9/12/00)
Only News That's Fit to Link by Declan McCullagh (8/23/00)
Studios Score DeCSS Victory By Declan McCulagh (8/17/00)
Napster: A Love Story by Brad King (8/4/00)
Court to Address DeCSS T-Shirt by Farhad Manjoo (8/2/00)
Apex Player Banned by Ebay by Andy Patrizio (6/20/00)
Movie Chief Mum on DVD Piracy by Declan McCullagh (6/17/00)
When DVD Is Too Good to Be Legal by Leander Kahney (6/19/00)
Digi-Security Act Has Its Day by Brad King (5/19/00)
Tuning Up Digital Copyright Law by Brad King (5/16/00)
DeCSS Gag Injunction Appealed no credited author (5/15/00)
Link Ban 'Threatens Free Speech' by Declan McCullagh (5/4/00)
Getting Snooped On? Too Bad by Declan McCullagh (4/7/00)
MPAA Sues to Stop DeCSS Linking by Andy Patrizio (4/5/00)
Geeks Protest, Nobody Comes by Declan McCullagh (3/28/00)
Censorware Exposed Again by Chris Oakes (3/9/00)

From ZDNet Inter@ctive Investor:
Consumer rights on the block? by Robert Lemos (1/17/01)

?Other Links of Interest

The Exclusive Right to Read by Jessica Litman is an excellent piece on how the copyright system has become a monster that the public has little hope of comprehending. She has a number of other interesting works on her home page

Another good paper is COPYRIGHT AND "THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT" OF AUTHORS .by L. Ray Patterson

Also see:

Don't Confuse Fans With Pirates by Roger Ebert (April 2002)

What's Wrong With Copy Protection by John Gilmore (2/16/01)

The Copyright Grab by Pamela Samuelson. She also has lots of papers here.

Contracts, Copyright and Preemption in a Digital World by I. Trotter Hardy

Information Liberation is a book, paper and on-line, by Brian Martin which addresses a number of abuses of media and copyright and discusses options for changing the system, not all of it practical, but interesting anyway.

Visit the DE SDMI site for another, fairly detailed, report of the breaking of the watermarking technologies.

I am working on another rant on DVDs and UCITA here , this is not finished.

Back to my Home Page.