Re: DMCA hearings and protests

On Tue, 30 May 2000, Eric Eldred <eldred[_at_]eldritchpress.org> wrote:
>
> An arm of the Church of Scientology demanded that e-Bay take down
> the auction offer and wrote e-Bay that it owned the copyright to
> the e-Meter and that if e-Bay did not take down the auction it
> would be in violation of the DMCA. The seller complied rather
> than risk jail [...]
>
> [...] e-Bay has also been accused of taking down auctions of
> Microsoft software upon receipt of similar demand letters [...]
> Microsoft suspects the software is counterfeit, while the sellers
> claim the software was legitimately purchased and resellable under
> First Sale doctrine.
>
> I and others claim [the DMCA] is being used to stifle free speech
> and to deprive customers of their property; it is a legitimate
> matter for us to discuss here.

Eric, I'll accept your recitation of the facts as accurate.

Copyright does protect software; it does not protect devices. The fact that the Scientologists erroneously cited a copyright law in demanding the removal of a device from sale, and eBay complied with that demand (because they erroneously believed that law applied? because they found the demand justified for other reasons? because they were scared?), is not relevant. This isolated incident involving mistaken application of the law simply has nothing to do with the present discourse.

Yes, of COURSE whether or not the DMCA is a fair and good law on copyright, or in conflict with the Bill of Rights, is a legitimate matter for discussion here. Let's not distract and detract from that discussion by setting up straw e-meters.

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