

Proposed DMCA Exemption Would Unchain Device Owners - nickolai
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2011/dec/02/proposed-dmca-exemption/

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wladimir
_"People must have the right to control the software running on devices they
own," said SFLC counsel Aaron Williamson. "That right is essential to the
continued development of free and open source software and is foundational to
our privacy, security, and freedom, online and off."_

He nails it completely.

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tiles
I had never heard of the SFLC before, so this summary from their filing
helped:

"SFLC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal services organization dedicated to
protecting and advancing free software. SFLC provides pro bono legal
representation to developers and educates the public about legal issues
affecting free software development. SFLC represents a number of prominent
developers and organizations that write and distribute free software directed
at personal computing devices, including the Free Software Foundation, which
develops and distributes GNU, a collection of free software operating system
utilities; the Debian project, which distributes a complete free software
operating system based on GNU and Linux; and the Foundation for Free
Multimedia Technology, which develops free software commonly used for media
playback."

Overall this seems to clarify the legal distinction of installing a legally-
obtained OS on all electronic devices you own. Jailbreaking of mobile phones
was ruled legal in 2009--but that only covers a small subset of electronics
which are becoming increasingly locked down.

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praptak
Nice, but I wonder about ways to circumvent this. If locking down users is
central to a company's business can they force users into accepting that they
"rent" the devices instead of "buying"?

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finnw
If they are going to lock it down anyway, yes I would rather rent it than buy
it. That might actually be a good solution.

I don't want to be told not to "tamper" with my PC on the grounds that it
would then be possible to use it for piracy.

But "don't tamper with your electricity meter" is perfectly reasonable - You
do not own that and you would not expect to own it or be allowed to modify it.

~~~
praptak
The line is thin. I would't want a situation where you can only plug rented,
locked devices into the internet (aka the wet dream of the copyright lobby.)
And the power to say "no" to a deal is not always sufficient to stop such crap
- look at the game consoles.

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snowwrestler
This sounds great but I think it is worth considering two things:

1) I'm not aware of any persecution or prosecution of any private citizen for
modifying their own device. For instance I've never heard of Apple seeking
legal action against an iPhone owner who jailbroke their phone. Or heck, even
against any of the groups who publish jailbreaks.

2) This would not force any manufacturer or carrier to provide support or
assistance in modifying device software.

As a point of legal clarification I think it sounds great but I think there
would be little practical impact.

~~~
saurik
Sony.

