22 Jul
2001
22 Jul
'01
7:45 a.m.
At 06:46 PM 7/21/01 -0700, Tim May wrote:
Had the DCMA been in effect in the 1950s, the Xerox Corporation and its execs and engineers probably would have faced charges for producing a "circumvention device" for enabling copyright violators. What, really, is the difference between a Xerox machine and something that allows copies of electronic text?
(Both have alternate uses besides pirating. Backups, for example.)
(Had the DCMA existed earlier:) Some publisher would have jailed the dude who noticed a property of selenium films exposed to light and applied it to copying documents. Even if he invented it in a foreign country. Reality is certainly more twisted than fiction.