Re: GPL v3 Draft

[Arnoud Engelfriet <arnoud@engelfriet.net>]

Nathanael Nerode wrote:
> "Effective technological protection measure" is supposed to mean "Effective 
> technological protection measure for preventing copying or distribution".  

I think the DMCA actually speaks about "access to the work"
(17 U.S.C. 1201):

   (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide,
   or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device,
   component, or part thereof, that--

   (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing
       a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work
       protected under this title;
   (...)

And "access" is defined such that I don't think it covers
copying of the protected work:

   (3) As used in this subsection--

   (A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a
       scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to
       avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological
       measure, without the authority of the copyright owner;  and
   (B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a
       work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation,
       requires the application of information, or a process or a
       treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain
       access to the work.

http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/17usc1201.htm

Arnoud

-- 
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/