Feds Reject Legalizing DVD Cracking, Game Console Modding

[silicon_toad2000]

The group had asked regulators to grant consumers the lawful right to make copies of DVDs for personal use, a request the Motion Picture Association of America strongly opposed. While plenty of programs exist to decrypt the so-called content-scramble-system encryption on DVDs, the decision against making it lawful means the mainstream public must live under Hollywood’s rules.

“Today’s decision flies in the face of reality. The register and the librarian were unable to recognize that personal space shifting is protected by fair use. This has implications beyond making personal copies of motion pictures on DVD,” said Michael Weinberg, a Public Knowledge vice president. “Under this view of the law every personal non-commercial space shift is a violation of copyright law. That means, according to the Copyright Office, every person who has ever ripped a CD to put on her iPod is a copyright infringer.”

DMCA exemptions, which are proposed by the public, expire every three years and must be reauthorized.

When it came to leaving intact the 2010 decision authorizing smartphone jailbreaking — to acquire root access to the phone — the regulators said consumers have a fair use right to do so to run whatever apps and software they wish.

The government also reaffirmed decisions allowing for the unlocking of mobile phones so they may run on compatible networks of choice — but only until January. Timothy Lee over at Ars Technica explains the government’s change of heart.

    The Librarian cited two key factors. One is a 2010 ruling that held that when you purchase software, you don’t actually own it. Rather, you merely license it according to the terms of the End User License Agreement. The Librarian argued that this undermined the claim that unlocking your own phone was fair use. Also, the Librarian found that there are more unlocked phones on the market than there were three years ago, and that most wireless carriers have liberal policies for unlocking their handsets. As a result, the Librarian of Congress decided that it should no longer be legal to unlock your cell phone without the carrier’s permission.

The authorities also reauthorized circumvention of e-books, a benefit for the seeing impaired so they may enable read-aloud functions.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dmca-exemptions-rejected/

[Trestor]

Looks to me like someone is looking forward to a seat on the Board of Directors of some company in the not too distant future.

I suggest a new law: companies don't own the money I exchange for the products they supply, but only obtain from me a license to hold that money for a time. Any income they derive from my money belongs to me, and that money is to be returned to me, with interest, after twenty-four months.

This new law would be fair and equitable and will prevent corporations from committing illegal acts of "piracy" with the money in their custody that I own and robbing me of my rightful income.