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The U.S. Constitution locked up
As seen in Lawrence Lessig's
weblog: Amazon.com is offering
an electronic version of the U.S. Constitution aimed at Microsoft's reader.
It's all nicely equipped with the usual digital rights management stuff;
according to Amazon, permission to print the Constitution has been denied.
The irony of the situation is self-evident. We at LWN would certainly never want to INDUCE anybody to commit a crime, but... if somebody were to get around the DRM and dump a copy of this electronic book onto their printer, it would be a clear violation of the DMCA. For somebody looking for a day in court, it would be harder to find a more desirable case to defend than being charged with printing the U.S. Constitution. Explaining the problems of U.S. copyright law to otherwise uninterested parties has always been a challenge; given enough products like this one, that task is likely to get easier. (Log in to post comments)
The U.S. Constitution locked up Posted Jul 1, 2004 3:08 UTC (Thu) by busterb (subscriber, #560) [Link] I like the listing of books people who bought the constitution also bought:# The Happy Mutant Handbook/Mischievous Fun for Higher Primates by Carla Sinclair, et al
The U.S. Constitution locked up Posted Jul 1, 2004 14:21 UTC (Thu) by jeremiah (guest, #1221) [Link] The comments aren't bad either? I imagine they'll get even saucier after slashdot get aholf of this. I esp like the comment comparing the US constitution to the Iraq's new one.
The U.S. Constitution locked up Posted Jul 1, 2004 15:23 UTC (Thu) by nstraz (subscriber, #1592) [Link] The Editorial Review does say it is printable from Adobe Reader. Has anyone tried that yet?
The U.S. Constitution locked up Posted Jul 1, 2004 17:43 UTC (Thu) by Soruk (subscriber, #2722) [Link] If that's true, then surely Adobe's own software should be rendered illegal under the DMCA (a la Elcomsoft)? ;-)
The U.S. Constitution locked up Posted Jul 3, 2004 4:38 UTC (Sat) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link] According to Lessig's blog you can print two copies per year -- DRMenforced.
Ok, so here's Posted Jul 1, 2004 18:46 UTC (Thu) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link] a version you *can* legally print, courtesy of your friends (:-) at a little place called the United States House Of Representatives.You know them: they're the people whose members couldn't get any love from the US Senate for their complaints about the Florida election fiasco, as lovingly documented by C-SPAN and replayed in Mike Moore's new op-ed piece. :-)
Anti-competitive? Posted Jul 2, 2004 15:56 UTC (Fri) by shane (subscriber, #3335) [Link] The government is yet again spending taxpayer money on a service that business could provide better and cheaper. Damn that evil government!"Just a Joke(tm)", for the irony-impared.
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