[LINK] Identity theft virus infects 10,000 computers

[Rick Welykochy]

--- Rick Welykochy <pirkeepie at yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> Another case in point: the AUTHOR of the freeware called DeCSS was found guilty
> under the provisions of DMCA (USA). There are similar laws in place in many other
> jurisdictions. "Off-the-shelf crapware" is indeed convered by the provisions
> of such legislation. Contract law has nothing to do with it in this case.

I should have done my research first. The DeCSS case was unexpectedly dropped,
much to my surprise. The author was NOT found guilty of anything in this regard.

<http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/4901.cfm>

and interestingly, <http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5020.cfm> ...

 "The decision doesn't make DeCSS or similar tools legal in the United States,
  but rather makes it clear for studios that the trade secrets legislation
  is not the correct ammunition in the fight against DVD ripping tools. In other
  cases, they've instead opted to use the notorious DMCA legislation in order to
  block the sales and distribution of DVD rippers. None of those cases have reached
  the Supreme Court yet."

>From which one can deduce that (a) DeCSS was not attacked using DMCA (rather, Trade 
Secrets protection was used, and failed) and (b) software such a DeCSS that violates
provisions of the DMCA is yet to be tested in courts in the USA.

Are we living in interesting times?

cheers
rickw
 




		
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