Student faces suit over key to CD locks (News.com) [LWN.net]

Student faces suit over key to CD locks (News.com)

Posted Oct 9, 2003 23:13 UTC (Thu) by dve (guest, #15903)
Parent article: Student faces suit over key to CD locks (News.com)

"He said it may charge the student with ... violating copyright law that bans the distribution of tools for breaking through digital piracy safeguards."

Of course he's not distributing any tool here. Microsoft is distributing the tool. He's just telling people how to use it. Something Microsoft and other vendors have already done.

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Student faces suit over key to CD locks (News.com)

Posted Oct 10, 2003 8:48 UTC (Fri) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link]

Given that Microsoft tell people how to circumvent software that executes automatically when a CD is inserted - in fact they provide a circumvention tool (TweakUI) which makes alters the Registry so that you don't even have to hold down the shift key - the culprit here is obviously Bill Gates.

The obvious defence is that the "circumvention mechanism" was published years before the "security tool" was released.

C'moff it, these snake oil vendors deserve every bit of the "reputation" which this case deserves to get them.

This is in the same class as patenting water or copyrighting the letter "a". Use of the DMCA in these circumstances only brings further discredit on the US legal system.