Re: Anti-DMCA clause (was Re: GPL v3 Draft

[Jeremy Hankins <nowan@nowan.org>]

Glenn Maynard <glenn@zewt.org> writes:

> A security mechanism which has been defeated by a piece of software is
> not "imperfect".  If I post my root password to this list, it is not
> an "imperfect but still effective" security mechanism; it is useless
> and defeated.

But, as you note below, that's not the case.

> (It seems to me that the real goal of this law is so that once a
> security mechanism is defeated, and is no longer effective, the real
> "security mechanism" becomes the law itself: by pretending that the
> obsolete mechanism is still "effective", the deterrent becomes the
> threat of prosecution, instead of actual security.)

Precisely.  IIRC, "effective security mechanism" was defined in terms of
controlling access "in the normal course of operation" -- which the
copyright holder is going to have a great deal of flexibility to define.

If you want to be charitable, you might say that "effective" here is
being used in the sense of "effectively, it's a security mechanism".
But whether you want to be charitable or not, it's clearly not being
used in a way that requires the mechanism to be robust.

-- 
Jeremy Hankins <nowan@nowan.org>
PGP fingerprint: 748F 4D16 538E 75D6 8333  9E10 D212 B5ED 37D0 0A03