Re: Re: Writing "press the shift key" alleged to be violation of DMCA

It doesn't? The DMCA prohibits circumventing a technological measure that effective controls access to a protected work. If that technological measure is copy protection, the DMCA surely DOES apply.

-Bodi

• Original Message ----- From: "Chris Mohr" <chrismohr[_at_]sprintmail.com> To: "CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property"
  <CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org>
  Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 4:02 PM Subject: [CNI-(C)] Re: Writing "press the shift key" alleged to be violation of DMCA

If it's copy protection, the DMCA doesn't even cover it.

-----Original Message-----
From: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property [mailto:CNI-COPYRIGHT[_at_]cni.org] On Behalf Of Theodora Michaels Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 1:17 PM
To: CNI-COPYRIGHT -- Copyright & Intellectual Property Subject: [CNI-(C)] Writing "press the shift key" alleged to be violation of DMCA Taking the DMCA to new heights of absurdity, SunnComm Technologies Inc. is reportedly suing a Princeton graduate student for pointing out that SunnComm's CD copy-protection scheme can be defeated by holding down the shift key:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews
<http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3589406>
&storyID=3589406

In what I assume is a parody article (though day by day it's getting harder to tell), Bertelsmann Group is also suing keyboard manufacturers for making this "shift" technology available:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/10/8/201119/758

The student's paper is here:
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/

Seems to me that if anyone has valid cause of action, it's only SunnComm's clients or investors, who may have been misled on the effectiveness of their copy-protection scheme.

Thea Received on Tue Oct 14 2003 - 20:18:09 GMT