Ed Felten on the Chamberlain decision [LWN.net]

Here is Ed Felten's take on the recent appeals court decision in the Chamberlain v. Skylink DMCA case. "In the end, the court backs away from the simple reverse-Sony interpretation of the DMCA, and makes a more limited finding that (1) tools whose only significant uses are non-infringing cannot violate the DMCA, and (2) in construing the DMCA, courts should balance the desire of Congress to protect the flanks of copyright owners' rights, against users' rights such as fair use and interoperation. In this case, the court said, the balancing test was easy, because Chamberlain's rights as a copyright owner (e.g., the right to prevent infringing copying of Chamberlain's software) were not at all threatened by Skylink's behavior, so one side of the balancing scale was just empty."

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