New DMCA ruling

[ECSNorway]

Sez a Federal Appeals Court:

"Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from
viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act's) anti-circumvention provision," Judge Garza
wrote for the New Orleans-based court.
     "The DMCA prohibits only
forms of access that would violate or impinge on the protections that
the Copyright Act otherwise affords copyright owners."

Source here.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Dartz]

"The owner's technological measure must protect the copyrighted material against an infringement of a right that the Copyright Act protects, not from mere use or viewing.

Ah. Now that does make sense. So long as it's not a violation of copyright to do what you want to do, it's not a DMCA violation?

That DRM cracks and the like are essentially legal, provided you've already bought that game, if the purpose of the crack is to just get the thing working correctly? I've had a couple of games (STALKER Clear Sky especially) fail to run because of SecureROM refusing the comprehend that yes that is the original game disk in the drive.

edit: The Register has an article on this and other exceptions.... notably jailbreaking the iPhone.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[ECSNorway]

Another note from the Reg article:

In addition to the three EFF petitions, the Copyright Office also granted exemptions to the DMCA. These cover: "good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities" of DRM-protected video games, the need to circumvent software-protection dongles when the companies that supplied them are out of business and "if a replacement or repair is no longer reasonably available," and - finally - bypassing an ebook's DRM to enable a "read-aloud function or... screen readers that render the text into a specialized format."

This finally fixes a LOT of things that were bad about the DMCA. Not all, but it's a damn good start.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[CattyNebulart]

no it doesn't this exception mechanism was built into the DCMA but they expire automatically after a year or every three years or something. Each time you must re-apply from scratch and hope that the exception is granted again. some of those exceptions have lapsed because people where tired of filling in the same stack of paperwork each time.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."