ManyMedia

After news that the DMCA was being used by Lexmark against inkjet cartridge manufacturers, and a garage door opener company against generic door openers, it was with some amusement that I read the story “Adobe agrees to anti-piracy measure:”

All the parties who are in agreement–including Dell, Microsoft and Apple–pledge to argue against hardware copyright protection schemes as well as against new bills currently before Congress that explicitly give consumers the right to make a limited number of personal copies of software under the “fair use” doctrine of U.S. copyright law. For its part, the RIAA has dropped its pursuit of forcing manufacturers to build copyright protection into hardware.

The terms “pledge to argue” is an understatement. They know that if Congress were to mandate something like copyright enforcement in hardware, Congress would unknowingly be creating a new techno-Medusa, turning all progress into stone.

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1. On Going Postal
2. New OS fits on a floppy
3. A Global Internet Plan for America

Content, Policy Adobe, Apple, Congress, Content, control, copyright, Dell, DMCA, fair use, Microsoft