Re: What Microsoft wants for your future

From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Thu Mar 13 2003 - 12:20:27 MST

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    Hal Finney wrote:

    >Charles Hixson writes, regarding Microsoft's RMS technology:
    >
    >
    >
    >>The nifty thing is that since this is a device to control access, the
    >>DMCA would make illegal for people to build a device, say a competing
    >>word processor, that could read the same format. No just to use it on
    >>their own files, but even to design it.
    >>
    >>
    >
    >The DMCA is a very problematic law that gets in the way of many things
    >that should be allowed. But from what I understand it, it does have an
    >exemption for reverse engineering for purposes of compatibility:
    >
    > REVERSE ENGINEERING... a person who has lawfully obtained the right
    > to use a copy of a computer program may circumvent a technological
    > measure that effectively controls access to a particular portion
    > of that program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing
    > those elements of the program that are necessary to achieve
    > interoperability of an independently created computer program with
    > other programs...
    >
    >http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/hr2281_dmca_law_19981020_pl105-304.html
    >
    >Of course IANAL and there may be some subtleties that I am overlooking,
    >but it appears that Congress intended there to be a loophole in the
    >DMCA for the specific purpose of reverse engineering for compatibility.
    >So the DMCA probably would not prevent the specific purpose Charles
    >describes above.
    >
    >Hal
    >
    Perhaps you are right. Of course, the only way to get the right to use
    MSOffice is going to be to install it under MSwindows, and MSwindows is
    becoming less and less friendly to having other OSs on the same
    computer. So you are going to be needing to analyse the software while
    using a legal copy of MSWindows. This means your tools need to run
    under MSwindows. And MSOS is going to ensure that only approved
    programs are allowed to execute....

    It may be possible. Perhaps. If you have enough money. And a good
    enough lawyer. But I expect that the new license agreements for the
    MSTools will say that you can't use them to reverse engineer protected
    software. Or they may just refuse to do it.

    -- 
    -- Charles Hixson
    Gnu software that is free,
    The best is yet to be.
    


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