Geek Drivel

The DMCA (the Draconian Media Clobbering Act… sorry, I mean the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) has been used for some pretty jaw-droppingly stupid things since it was passed. This is just one of them, but it’s an important one, because the court just told copyright holders that they will be punished if they demand that something legal (under fair-use laws) be taken down under the DMCA.

In other words, copyright holders can’t just set a program to automatically scan everything on the ‘net and issue take-down notices under the DMCA for anything remotely similar to something they own — one of the most blatant abuses of the law, and apparently a very popular one until today.

As the first comment says:

A fair decision in a copyright case?
I think this is one of the signs of the apocalypse…
(I’ll be under my desk if anyone needs me)

For those uber-geeks who are still following the ridiculous SCO-versus-Novell lawsuit, it looks like the end is (finally!) near: in a stunningly apropos reversal, SCO (which instigated the lawsuit) has been ordered to pay Novell for violating their rights. They probably won’t have the money, but it’s a moral victory, at least.

Two of my favorite targets in a single (and pretty good) article — bonus!

I’ve been saying since April or so that Apple really wanted to avoid going to court over Psystar (the Hackintosh maker) because it would open up a huge can of legal worms for Apple, but apparently most legal people think that Apple will win the case without even trying. This post gives some good reasons why my take on it (which is presumably also Apple’s) has some merit.

The collective tech sphere (which has been holding its breath wondering what lawsuit-happy Apple was waiting for) can now breathe again.

The article says that this “pretty much spells the end for Psystar.” He’s probably right, because it’s not likely Psystar can afford to defend itself… but if it can take this all the way to a trial, there’s a very good chance that it would win. And if that happens, Apple can bend over and kiss its huge computer profit margins goodbye.

But, as I’m sure Apple’s management is counting on, there isn’t much chance of that.

Interesting Terms of Service on Google Gears… not only does it explicitly exclude open-source products from the usual disassembly prohibitions, but it enjoins you (if you develop code that uses it) to “protect the privacy and legal rights of those users” (section 5.5). Not the sort of thing you generally see in a software license, but one I heartily endorse.

And on a closely-related note, the court system has ruled that the President isn’t above the law. Who would have thought?