Fair use is irrelevant? Since when?

Posted Nov 26, 2002 16:56 UTC (Tue) by corbet (editor, #1)
In reply to: Fair use is irrelevant? Since when? by jachim
Parent article: Major test of copyright law set to start (News.com)

It reveals the approach that DMCA proponents (and the courts) have tended to take in general: the DMCA makes no exemptions for fair use. The language of the law forbids circumvention devices, regardless of whether those devices are being employed in a "fair use" mode or not. Congress has said that content protection trumps fair use in this case, and, unfortunately, the courts seem to think that Congress has the right to do that. The ruling in this case, too, may well be that fair use really is irrelevant to the question of whether Elcomsoft was selling an illegal circumvention device. Sad, but true.