DPKdebator
Smash Apprentice
Just a short while ago, I read an article stating that a group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation is filing a lawsuit against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (there's also several other articles on the subject). One major aspect of the DMCA is that while modifying any old thing is fine, if it's protected by DRM in any way, tampering with it is illegal and can send you to prison for five years and cost you US$500,000. Originally, it was mostly meant for DVD manufacturers so that they were protected against pirating; but as of now it is used by all kinds of companies to lock out people from accessing their device's guts. What do you all think of this? Do you think that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 is unconstitutional? Should the law be repealed?
If you ask me, I would agree with people who say it's unconstitutional. As stated previously, one glaring characteristic of the DMCA is its ridiculous punishments, as modifying DVD players can get you in jail for 5 years and get you US$500,000 in fines. That's quite extreme for a silly little thing like a DVD player- it's not like, say, you're a murderer or a robber (which are examples of real crimes). DRM also locks people out of things that they own and bought with their own money. Some companies like to go on about how it's a "service" and that you don't really "own" their product; but I believe that if you bought something or someone bought it for you, then it's yours and you should be free to do what you want with it. The DMCA gets in the way of this, since it punishes people for tampering with software, locks them out of their property, and costs a lot too if a manufacturer "fix-proofs" their product(s).
If you ask me, I would agree with people who say it's unconstitutional. As stated previously, one glaring characteristic of the DMCA is its ridiculous punishments, as modifying DVD players can get you in jail for 5 years and get you US$500,000 in fines. That's quite extreme for a silly little thing like a DVD player- it's not like, say, you're a murderer or a robber (which are examples of real crimes). DRM also locks people out of things that they own and bought with their own money. Some companies like to go on about how it's a "service" and that you don't really "own" their product; but I believe that if you bought something or someone bought it for you, then it's yours and you should be free to do what you want with it. The DMCA gets in the way of this, since it punishes people for tampering with software, locks them out of their property, and costs a lot too if a manufacturer "fix-proofs" their product(s).
