Re: GPL V3 and Linux

[Bernd Petrovitsch]

On Thu, 2006-01-26 at 22:10 -0500, Valdis.Kletnieks@xxxxxx wrote:
> On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 10:42:24 +0100, Bernd Petrovitsch said:
> 
> > With the exception that I *can* circumvent the protection on PDFs *if*
> > I'm legally allowed to copy the copyrighted work (with or without the
> > owner's permission - this is one reason for a legal copy. But there are
> > others which cannot be inhibited by the copyright holder - which is
> > usually not the artist).
> 
> Actually, in the US, it is in fact illegal to bypass a protection scheme
> *even if the content is something you have legal rights to*.

Well, the so-called "land of the free". SCNR .....

> http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00001201----000-.html
> 
> 17 USC 1201(a)(1)(A) says:
> 
> (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively
                                                              ^^^^^^^^^^
> controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Actually there is similar wording here (but of course in German) used
for the similar purpose. The problem with this kind of law is IMHO:
-) "effectively controls access": If I (or someone else) can circumvent
   it, it is obviously not "effective".
-) If I (and no one else) cannot circumvent it, the laws/court decisions
   as such is basically pointless because it doesn't limit or hinder
   anything.
And we have no definition (in the laws) hereover whatever "effective"
should mean and hoe *I* can determine (which a sufficient large chance
of getting it right) if a given protection scheme must be considered
"effective".

Don't get me wrong, I understand how it is meant what such rules should
achieve an, but I request from lawyers (as such) that they write
laws/court decisions down in an unambigous way (for a non-law person -
remember that laws affect *all* people so every law and court decision
should IMHO readable and understandable by the average citizen).

And if they can't write it down unambigously, I actually question if we
want to accept laws/court decisions about rules and concepts which
cannot be even written down in a simple enough and clear way.

[..]
> Got that?  You have to apply for special permission to bypass to get data that
> you have rights to use....

Yes, because that is the primary goal of all of the laws in that area in
last years: To effectively take away legal rights from you that you
actually legally have (or better: had).

	Bernd
-- 
Firmix Software GmbH                   http://www.firmix.at/
mobil: +43 664 4416156                 fax: +43 1 7890849-55
          Embedded Linux Development and Services


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