[FoRK] Re: Kindle first impressions

[Luis Villa]

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Jeff Bone <jbone at place.org> wrote:
>
>  On May 5, 2008, at 3:44 PM, Luis Villa wrote:
>
>
> > Though it has never gone to court, there seems to be wide consensus
> > (among both fans and opponents of the DMCA) that the DMCA does take
> > away fair use in any situation where DRM is in place.
> >
>
>  Yes, my point is that they can't prevent me from acting as if fair use was
> in effect, they can only punish me if I act that way and they have indeed
> diluted the doctrine.  But they've got to catch me, first.  Then they've got
> to mount --- and win --- a trial.  Pretty much inconceivable for any of the
> kinds of fair use or other behavior, legal or otherwise, that I'm likely to
> engage in anyway...
>
> > > regardless what they attempt to do in their license agreements (freakin'
> > > lawyers, I refuse to acknowledge any terms in any license agreement I
> > > "sign," period.
> > >
> >
> > The thing with the DMCA is that it doesn't rely on anything you sign
> > or don't sign.
> >
>
>  Don't care;  doesn't bother me.  AFAIC, it doesn't exist. ;-)  This idea
> that lawyers have that somehow words on paper (particularly when they're
> prima facie ridiculous) can by themselves coercively, preemptively modify
> people's behavior is, frankly, baffling. ;-)

Ah, so you have the version of iTunes where you can rip a DVD to your
iPod, just like you can rip a CD? Oh, wait, what, that doesn't exist,
you say? Doesn't exist because Apple doesn't want to violate the DMCA?
Huh, funny that. So you can do it... just without the polish,
convenience, and commercial investment you (correctly) praise
elsewhere in this thread.

To be slightly less snarky, I get your point that the DMCA doesn't
stop *you*, but it does stop lots of people (either because of their
moral concerns, or because it reduces their access to
knowledge/tools), certainly stops virtually all corporations, and even
in cases where lots of people aren't stopped (pot, speed limits, mp3s)
it helps create cynicism and disregard for law, which admittedly is a
sort of abstract problem, but I think helps reduce people's motivation
to actually *fix* broken laws.

Luis