On 5/19/2014 7:58 AM, Richard Hector wrote:
On 19/05/14 23:19, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 5/19/2014 4:31 AM, Richard Hector wrote:
On 19/05/14 14:01, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 5/18/2014 9:47 PM, Paul E Condon wrote:
On 20140518_2131-0400, Jerry Stuckle wrote:
On 5/18/2014 6:39 PM, The Wanderer wrote:
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On 05/18/2014 05:49 PM, Tom H wrote:
You seem to have an issue with copyrights, and are venting
about DRM
because it enables copyright holders.
DRM doesn't just "enable copyright holders".
Copyright law restricts what people are allowed to do.
DRM restricts what people are *able* to do.
When the copyright on something expires (not that that ever happens
nowadays), it enters the public domain, and people are allowed to
copy
and redistribute it as much as they care to. This is, in fact, the
goal
and the purpose of copyright, at least in USA law.
Copyrights last a long time, depending on the laws of the country
under which the item is copyrighted. But typically it is either 75
years from the original copyright, or 75 years after the death of
the
owner (author) of the copyrighted material. Both are much longer
than the Internet has existed.
If the copyright on something restricted by DRM were to expire,
and the
DRM were still effective (or if breaking it were forbidden, e.g. by
anti-circumvention laws), then although people would be
*allowed* to
copy and redistribute it at will, they would still not be *able*
to do
so, without permission from whoever controls the DRM - which would,
likely, be the former holder of the copyright.
There's more, but that should do as a first point. Objections to
DRM go
far beyond just objections to copyright.
Please show an example where that has occurred.
Please show an example of a digital recording that was copyrighted
75 yrs
ago. It is a silly request, I know. But no less silly than yours.
Not silly at all. But there are may of them. The works of
Shakespeare,
among others, are much older than 75 years, and have now entered the
public domain. And they have been digitized.
Jerry
A more relevant request: how about an example of a digital (or any)
recording that was released _with_DRM_ for which the copyright has now
lapsed?
Richard
Richard,
That's true - it would be more relevant.
Do you agree, then, that this is a problem with DRM? Especially in the
case where the original copyright holder goes out of business, dies or
otherwise vanishes, and is unable to control the DRM tech at all?
No, I don't agree. I have seen no indication of a problem at this time.
As for the original copyright holder - no matter what, someone owns the
copyright. If the owner dies, it becomes part of the estate. If the
owner goes out of business, copyright transfer is a part of the
liquidation process. And even if the owner vanishes, he/she still owns
the copyright.
Also, just because something is copyrighted doesn't mean it has to be
made available for use by others. The owner is well within his/her
rights to say "I'm the only one who can use this".
Actually I had a similar problem many years ago - I was working with a
perfectly legal but rather obsolete version of SCO Xenix, which had an
activation mechanism that was no longer supported. I would have liked to
reinstall the system (and was also at risk of damaging it), and had the
tape (!), but the activation service was no longer available. The
software in that case was still copyright, but (or at least my client)
was still perfectly entitled to use it, but technically prevented.
Richard
I don't know the terms of the license, but it is perfectly valid for a
company to put a time or other limit in a license. Your client may or
may not have been entitled to continue to use it.
But if the client were able to legally use it, I would think the current
copyright owner would be obliged to provide an alternate activation
mechanism. Getting them to do it may be difficult, though.