US DMCA Law Overhauled
<div class="IPBDescription">Iphone jailbreaking, educational content, DVDs, etc.</div>Seems like some pretty huge news, might be really helpful to some here. US Copyright office making some big changes to things alleged to be 'pirating' in the past.
<a href="http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librarian-of-Congress-1201-Statement.html" target="_blank">http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librari...-Statement.html</a>
<a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/now-legal-in-the-u-s-jailbreaking-your-iphone-ripping-a-dvd-for-educational-purposes/" target="_blank">http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/now-l...ional-purposes/</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It’s no longer illegal under the DMCA to jailbreak your iPhone or bypass a DVD’s CSS in order to obtain fair use footage for educational purposes or criticism. These are the new rules that were handed down moments ago by the U.S. Copyright Office. This is really big. Like, really big.
The office looks at copyright law every three years in order to make revisions or exemptions. The six “classes†now exempt from prosecution under the DMCA are:
1. Defeating a lawfully obtained DVD’s encryption for the sole purpose of short, fair use in an educational setting or for criticism
2. Computer programs that allow you to run lawfully obtained software on your phone that you otherwise would not be able to run aka Jailbreaking to use Google Voice on your iPhone
3. Computer programs that allow you to use your phone on a different network aka Jailbreaking to use your iPhone on T-Mobile
4. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) for the purposes of legitimate security testing or investigation
5. Cracking computer programs protected by dongles when the dongles become obsolete or are no longer being manufactured
6. Having an ebook be read aloud (ie for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing.
This is easily the biggest tech news I have come across in quite some time—we’re talking years here. I’m actually going to need a few moments to digest all of this.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thoughts on this?
<a href="http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librarian-of-Congress-1201-Statement.html" target="_blank">http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/Librari...-Statement.html</a>
<a href="http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/now-legal-in-the-u-s-jailbreaking-your-iphone-ripping-a-dvd-for-educational-purposes/" target="_blank">http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/now-l...ional-purposes/</a>
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It’s no longer illegal under the DMCA to jailbreak your iPhone or bypass a DVD’s CSS in order to obtain fair use footage for educational purposes or criticism. These are the new rules that were handed down moments ago by the U.S. Copyright Office. This is really big. Like, really big.
The office looks at copyright law every three years in order to make revisions or exemptions. The six “classes†now exempt from prosecution under the DMCA are:
1. Defeating a lawfully obtained DVD’s encryption for the sole purpose of short, fair use in an educational setting or for criticism
2. Computer programs that allow you to run lawfully obtained software on your phone that you otherwise would not be able to run aka Jailbreaking to use Google Voice on your iPhone
3. Computer programs that allow you to use your phone on a different network aka Jailbreaking to use your iPhone on T-Mobile
4. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) for the purposes of legitimate security testing or investigation
5. Cracking computer programs protected by dongles when the dongles become obsolete or are no longer being manufactured
6. Having an ebook be read aloud (ie for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing.
This is easily the biggest tech news I have come across in quite some time—we’re talking years here. I’m actually going to need a few moments to digest all of this.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thoughts on this?
Comments
major
industry is not going to like this, the common man is!
Fair use, and dongle obsolescence, as well as jailbreaking provisions.
Now if we could just get some net neutrality...
I really hate all the "you own this item, but it's actually ours" stuff the tech industry does all the time. This is a nice step forward.
As far as the iphone part of this is concerned, I don't think this ruling—or it's exact wording breakdown—will make much a difference in peoples' minds, whether they were planning on jailbreaking their phone or not. Apple would never sue end-users for modifying their phones anyways, that would be corporate suicide. Seems to me that the most serious outcome of this will be that Apple takes an even firmer stance on not offering support and warranty service on jailbroken phones and modified software, which won't end up being much of a change at all.
Him: "Dude, have you heard about this? It's now <i>legal</i> to jailbreak an iPhone!"
Me: "Yep."
Him: "This sucks!"
Me: "Why shouldn't people be allowed to jailbreak their iPhones?"
Him: "Well, because-"
Me [getting a little angry]: "Why shouldn't people be allowed to do whatever the *expletive deleted* they want to do with their iPhone?"
Him: "Well, how come you can't share music?"
Me: "Because it's illegal."
Him: "How come that's illegal but jailbreaking isn't?"
Me: "Because the RIAA wanted it to be illegal."
Him: "Then why isn't jailbreaking illegal?"
Me: "Because the RIAA doesn't care if you jailbreak your phone and there's no reason to make it illegal."
Him: "Then why is sharing music illegal?"
Me: "Because the RIAA can get the government to do what they want."
Then he got annoyed because he didn't understand why one thing could be illegal and the other thing couldn't and walked off to get a snack.
I'm not really sure where I was going with this. But yeah, great, no longer illegal to do stuff that nobody really stopped you from doing before. Hooray!