[wellylug] Mini-ITX Motherboard

[Phillip Hutchings]

On Mon, 14 Mar 2005 08:43:50 +1300, Bret Comstock Waldow
<bwaldow at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> I pay for a license to use the encryption when I buy the player/burner - it
> happens the implementation is in Windows format, but the license is a
> license.

Yep. Or possibly a licence.

> Reverse engineering is legal to allow me to take advantage of equipment I've
> bought and code I've licensed, regardless of clauses in the license
> forbidding it., both in the US and in NZ from what I've read

Yep, to a degree. You can't, of course, distribute without a licence,
as the licence only lets you use it for that one device.

>  As well,
> copyright laws allow for "fair use" which includes me using the content in
> different form.

NO. New Zealand copyright law forbids copying in any form of media.
You cannot make a copy of a DVD. You cannot rip a CD you own to MP3.
The copyright that applies to printed matter is different in this
regard.

The government are/were planning to change it, but the recording
industry group here claim it'll increase piracy. Considering that most
people aren't aware that it's illegal and/or rip CDs anyway, I fail to
see their point.

> I can't make copies for someone else, but I can make copies for my own use.

Nope.

> I can see a case of requiring a license for the algorithm, but once I've got
> that, I am legally allowed to express the implementation in other forms for
> my own use if it's convenient for me to do so.  To make me pay for a hardware
> modification that only let's me use one operating system, or to try to forbid
> me from using an alternate implementation is not supported by the actual
> copyright laws - that's banditry on the part of the people attempting to
> force this choice on me.

I agree.

> Industry's fear that I "might" use this capability to violate their copyright
> doesn't convey to them the authority to extend the meaning of the laws
> involved.

No, that's really their problem to find out why people would rather
copy the things instead of buying them legally.

> I'm afraid that that fellow in the car next to me "might" become a road-rage
> shooter and kill a dozen people - but that doesn't allow me to pretend the
> law gives me authority to stop him pre-emptively.  "I'm taking your car,
> buddy.  I think you may need to calm down some day."

It'd be fun if we could do that to boy racers! But it's still an absurd concept.

> The Roman Empire is no more - societies change.  It's ok with me if the
> Entertainment Industry as we've known it changes - people in the broad are
> more important than that small slice of life.  But for them to try to limit
> my rights so they can remain in a position they like - sorry.
> 
> Our rules are fair, and we change them from time to time as we see imbalances.
> Industry gets to shut up and play by them.

I wish the RIAA could see this. I'll stay in NZ for now, where we have
better things to do.
-- 
Phillip Hutchings
http://www.sitharus.com/
sitharus at gmail.com / sitharus at sitharus.com