At 10:58 PM 10/30/95, Andrew Loewenstern wrote:
IANAL, but I thought these types of laws were already tested and deemed unconstitutional in cases involving video-tape copying boxes, dual video cassette dubbing decks, SCMS 'scrubbers', etc...
The copy-defeat and SCMS scrubbers exist in a legal limbo, mainly being sold for "other purposes" and often by companies which come and go in the back pages of audio and video magazines. For example, I've used a audio gadget (Audio Alchemy "DTI") that reclocks the bit stream out of a digital source (CD or DAT player)...one of the side effects is that it also strips (or resets, to be more precise) the SCMS bits on a DAT recording. Effectively, it defeats the SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) copy protection scheme. The company that makes it is of coure well aware of this side effect, as is the audiophile/DAT community, but the company (Audio Alchemy) takes great pains _not_ to mention this side effect in their literature. Likewise, the various Macrovision video copy protection scheme defeaters, such as may be found in the back pages of video magazines, are "for the legitimate user only." I'm fairly certain that any open and aboveboard advertising of such products as "copy protection defeaters" would face legal challenges under the copyright laws. The Go Video and other dual-cassette systems have ostensible legitimate uses (notably, copying of tapes one has made, perhaps of lectures or speeches or other personal recordings) and have been "allowed." In particular, Go Video was held up in its plans for a couple of years while lawyers and regulators negotiated. Other cases, such as the Sony-Disney Betamax case, and, indeed, the Xerox machine itself, involve other issues. Practicalities of enforcement are one of the most important issues. The Supreme Court obviously looked at the noninfringing uses (home movies, for example), the difficulty of enforcing laws against the taping of television shows and movies, etc., and concluded that technology and markets had made that particular aspect of copyright law moot. The rationale of "time-shifting" was just the best face they could put on it, in my view. Anyway, there are lots of issues and lots of nuances. --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."