Reverse engineering court decision

[James Sutherland]

On Tue, 6 Feb 2001, Patrik Stridvall wrote:

> > Patrik,
> > 
> > You are most likely correct.  Eventually the court system 
> > will get their
> > head out of their ass and figure this out.  
> 
> I hope so.

There's optimism for you - they've had their heads there for years, why
change now? They're just getting comfortable...

> > At the moment it 
> > seems to me
> > like its way up in there and they are going "Damn, it's dark in here".
> 
> Well, since the DMCA IMHO is logically inconsistant, that is not very
> suprising. I interpret Judge Kaplan opinion in the DeCSS as "I don't
> really understand this, but if I blame it on Congress and give the
> plaintiff the victory I will probably look less a fool in the eyes of
> my peers".

Perhaps. Some of the Slashdot comments on the matter won't have helped,
though...

> > Personally I am glad there are people that are very 
> > passionate about these
> > issues because someone has to bitch about it and start 
> > getting normal people
> > thinking about it.  
> 
> Actually I don't think normal people will understand or care very much
> until it directly affects them, like why can't I record this TV
> program.

Indeed. DeCSS never got much attention over here, but 80% of home DVD
players are now region de-crippled.

> > Even my dad could easily see the argument that
> > restricting someone from writing a program is really really braindead
> > (although he has done coding way back in the day).  His 
> > response was that
> > eventually the court system will figure it out and it'll be 
> > over and done
> > with.  Seems to be much the same as your response.
> 
> Yes, approximately, but don't forget that in the worst case laws can
> be changed and in the meantime enforcing it will be close to
> impossible.

Indeed. It'll probably survive for a while, but with more and more holes
being cut...


James.