Re: GPL v3 Draft

[Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org>]

On Thu, Jan 19, 2006 at 07:53:46AM +0100, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> 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;

This doesn't even make sense.  If a measure effectively controls access
to a work, it's not possible to create technology to bypass it; conversely,
if it's possible to bypass a control measure, then it is, by definition,
ineffective.  GPG is effective because it can't be reasonably bypassed;
if someone successfully wrote a program to decrypt its files, then it
would obviously no longer be effective.

(Of course, laws and courts have free reign to interpret words in any
way that suits their agenda, so "effectively" probably really means
"pretends to" ...)

-- 
Glenn Maynard