On Tue, Dec 09, 2003 at 01:57:00PM -0500, Duncan Frissell wrote:Then one of them claimed he had arranged to have my account yanked, for
"violation of the DMCA." He claimed he had sent copies of my "criminal"
admissions to Got.net, to the RIAA, to "law enforcement" (shudder!),
and so on.
I gather that the denizens of alt.video.dvd have yet to read the Betamax
case. Perhaps they should expand their reading before they opine on the
state of IP law.
He was just trolling, being intentionally vague so that they'd assume he was copying from one DVD to another. Which they did, and which they raved about.
There isn't any profound insight to be derived from a tired old picture of a newsgroup being provoked by trolling.
No, not a conventional troll.
Disinformation was being spread about how "making a copy of something" is the "same as stealing." Some of the apologists for DMCA were saying that anyone who copies a CD is the same as a shoplifter.
I casually volunteered that I made an average of one DVD of a Hollywood movie per day.
The kneejerks by the apologists for DMCA were illuminating, including the claim that the RIAA would be "investigating" this as a case of piracy. Frankly, I had hope for one of the several hundred lawsuits the RIAA has been tossing out like confetti (including to people who have never owned a computer...sounds like some due diligence malpractice cases are in order). Even better would be a process server trespassing on my property...no point in having a pig farm if you have nothing to throw to the pigs.
The revelation that Don Frederickson is one of those who needs to be dealt with eventually was rewarding.
--Tim May
"You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged." - -Michael Shirley
