Michaelwagner Wrote: > Has this survived a supreme court challenge? > > I'm not in the US, so I'm not familiar with US politics, but it's hard > to see how DMCA could overturn fair use and first sale, principles > which have been in place for eons.
Parts of it have. Eldred v. Ashcroft challenged the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act which extended the copyright term again (even after DMCA) but failed. The Court ruled that Congress has the power to make term decisions as they see fit (I agree, personally - I just wish they did a better job in making those decisions). Fair use and first sale are much more tricky. Fair use was challenged in MGM v Grokster, the P2P file sharing case that the entertainment industry won this summer. The Supreme Court's ruling was relatively narrow but hinged on fair use in support of file sharing networks. The case was a bit messy unfortunately and dealt a blow to fair use in the minds of many even though the Court's opinion didn't exactly say that. It will be quite a few years I'm sure before anyone has the guts and dollars to mount a new case that is clean enough to force the Court to decide on fair use. The decision has certainly had a chilling effect on further innovation. Fair use's history is shaky in general - Congress has always avoided defining it, leaving it instead for the courts to decide because it is too contentious an issue for them to handle but the courts seek to release only very narrow opinions referring back to Congress (in MGM v Grokster they even suggested that Congress might get involved here but Congress hasn't and won't). The next chapter in the story I think is that DRM technologies will make legislation all but unnecesary. Despite the first sale doctrine, courts have upheld the right of, for instance, software companies to bind purchasers to license agreements that are contained inside the packaging. Those license agreements can dictate that you do not have permission to resell the product and since you bought it and accepted those terms, you're stuck with them. The same can and is being used for purchases of music and other intellectual property when you buy things online. Even if the first sale doctrine exists in theory, contract law preceeds it and buyer beware (even if the buyer has no other option). -- icky2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ icky2000's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3428 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=18642 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
