Another fun DMCA case

Another fun DMCA case

You wrote:

> Regarding making an affirmative effort, I've already written the same thing myself elsewhere in this discussion. You seem to think that just because the use of robots.txt is optional that this means that no one could show that you had made a special effort to avoid the use of robots.txt. That simply isn't true.

and

> I disagree that compliance with robots.txt requires proactive effort.

and

>Whether it is voluntary to use robots.txt or not really doesn't make any difference. Almost all copy prevention technologies are voluntary. There is no law requiring VCRs to interpret brightness signals differently than television sets, but this difference is still the basis for Macrovision's copy prevention technology.

First of all, in regard to that last statement: Huh? In the first place, Macrovision apparently enjoys the unique pleasure of having a clause inserted into the DMCA just for its own benefit (http://www.unmediated.org/archives/2005/06/macrovision_in...). Second, are you really comparing the difficulty level of not implementing robots.txt with designing and building a new VCR?

You repeatedly suggest that the difficulty of avoiding a copy protection "scheme" (I'm not even going to use mechanism anymore) is irrelevant, but the rest of us are saying the opposite -- that that is the only rational interpretation of the meaning "effective". Get it? No "psychic fingerprinting".

Finally, if if what you say were true, various senators and the MPAA would not have found it necessary to introduce the Broadcast Flag amendment (which was struck down as an FCC regulation), as they (the MPAA) would have had all the authority they needed under the DMCA.

Peter Yellman