[Slight OT] TDPL in Russia

[Jonathan M Davis]

On Friday 27 August 2010 22:47:54 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "Jonathan M Davis" <jmdavisprog at gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:mailman.535.1282972511.13841.digitalmars-d at puremagic.com...
> 
> > On Friday 27 August 2010 21:58:30 Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> >> "Steven Schveighoffer" <schveiguy at yahoo.com> wrote in message
> >> news:op.vh3740cneav7ka at localhost.localdomain...
> >> 
> >> > Fair use protects copying for reasonable usage (such as backing  up
> >> > your
> >> > software, or transferring it to another medium for your own  benefit).
> >> 
> >> Not in the US.
> > 
> > It was certainly my understanding that backing up software was covered
> > under
> > free use.
> 
> (IANAL)
> 
> "Fair use" only exists in US law in the same sense that "Plessy v.
> Ferguson" ("Separate but equal") exists. Plessy v. Ferguson is still in
> the books, but it's effectively rendered dead by "Brown v. Board of
> Education" (for good reason, of course). Similarly, "Fair use" still
> exists in the books, but it's effectively rendered dead by the DMCA (for
> shitty reason, of course). Only real difference I see is that "Plessy v.
> Ferguson" and "Brown v. Board of Education" are case law and "fair
> use"/DMCA aren't, but I don't think that makes any real difference (sure
> as shit doesn't make any *practical* difference).
> 
> Yea, DCMA only overturns fair use when "copy protection" is used, but
> that's trivial enough: all you really need to do is to slap a "consider
> this copyrighted" bit into it (and there's probably even super-low-tech
> ways to do it that would be compatible with, say, a book or CD Audio) and
> declare "this is DRM", and there you go - no more pesky "fair use" to get
> in the way of corporate greed.

Well, since both fair use and the DMCA are law, and they contradict each other, 
I believe it would take a court ruling to say which won out, and even then it 
could easily depend on the exact circumstances of the case. Some situations 
might be deemed legal under fair use while others might be deemed illegal due to 
the DMCA.

Personally, what I'd really love to have happen is have a case go to court where 
someone did something under fair use which was illegal under the DMCA and have 
at least some portion of the DMCA overruled by the Supreme Court due to it 
violating fair use. But I can't imagine the odds of that happening are very 
high. After all, the DMCA has been around for a while now, and it hasn't 
happened. Also, odds are that it would happen in a suit by a big corporation 
against an individual, and the individual wouldn't be able to afford to take the 
case that far, so it wouldn't actually get to the Supreme Court to be ruled on. 
In any case, I can dream, I suppose. The DMCA is one of the worst laws ever 
passed, but there's not much that we can do about it.

- Jonathan M Davis