Re: DMCA hearings and protests

On Tue, 30 May 2000, Jon Noring <noring[_at_]netcom.com> wrote:
>
> Scientology used the DMCA, claiming copyright infringement, as
> the stick to have the Scientology e-meter removed from eBay,
> and eBay complied per the terms of the DMCA.
>
> Eric's discussion of this is totally relevant to this mailing
> list, since it illustrates how terrible the DMCA law is, and why
> it is a danger to our civil liberties.

I'm sorry, but "per the terms of the DMCA" doesn't make any sense to me, since the DMCA does not apply to electrical devices. The DMCA ("law" is redundant, since "A" stands for "Act") has to do with copyright (that's what the "C" stands for). Devices are not protected by copyright. If eBay removed a device from sale, it cannot have been in order to comply with copyright law. Trademark law or patent law, perhaps, but not copyright law. Thus, I don't understand why an incident involving an electrical meter illustrates the goodness or badness of copyright law.

--Dodi Schultz
  <schultz[_at_]compuserve.com> Received on Wed May 31 2000 - 22:06:34 GMT