The DMCA and interoperability

The first case is a lawsuit by Lexmark against Static Control Components. Lexmark printers talk to installed toner cartridges via a proprietary protocol; the printer will refuse to use cartridges which do not speak this protocol. According to Lexmarks's complaint (PDF format), this mechanism "protects consumers to ensure that they are using genuine Lexmark toner cartridges." It also, of course, protects Lexmark's revenue stream by ensuring that consumers are "protected" from buying cheaper toner cartridges from another manufacturer.

A company called SMARTEK sells chips which can successfully perform the handshake with Lexmark printers, and thus allow "unauthorized" toner cartridges to be used. Lexmark has two distinct gripes with this product. First, they claim, the SMARTEK chip contains a copy of code from Lexmark's own chip; this, if true, would be a straightforward copyright violation. But Lexmark also claims that, regardless of the provenance of the code, the SMARTEK chip circumvents Lexmark's technical measures which control access to the software running in the printer itself. And that, of course, is a DMCA violation.

This claim may seem like a bit of a stretch, but Ed Felten's remarks on the case are worth a read:

A similar case has been brought forward (late last year) by the Chamberlain Group, a manufacturer of automatic garage door openers. Chamberlain's remote openers use a sort of one-time password scheme to defend against playback attacks, which is certainly a worthwhile goal. Of course, this scheme also makes it difficult for competitors to make and sell remotes which will work with Chamberlain's openers.

Unfortunately for Chamberlain, a company called Skylink figured out how to do it. Chamberlain's complaint (PDF format), "the Skylink transmitter circumvents the protective measure of Chamberlain's copyrighted rolling code computer program in the receiver wherein the homeowner can gain unauthorized access to such computer program." The owner, in other words, is gaining unauthorized access to his garage door opener, which he thought he had bought, to (without authorization) open his own door, which he thought was part of his house.

This case, too, will probably not be laughed out of court.

One of the nice features of Linux, of course, is interoperability. Developers of the Linux kernel and applications have, over the years, put a great deal of effort into making Linux work with just about any other system - hardware or software - that they could. Interoperability is one of the big selling points of the Linux system. It is increasingly clear, however, that the DMCA allows vendors to make interoperability a crime simply by saying so. There can be no doubt that this "feature" of the DMCA will see increasing use in the future, and that Linux users will feel its bite.