Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the great
I'm not so sure this is true. A trade secret only means "I know this fact, and I'm not telling anyone". It has no legal meaning. Sony could have a copyright on the LRF format, true. But if Sony tried to pursue an infringement suit against Baen, they would first have to prove that Kovid infringed upon the copyright. So far as I know, Sony has never released the specs for BBeB. So it would be rather hard to prove that someone infringed on something he'd never seen.
|
Right, but my point, Nate, is that the DMCA is about JUST that. One of the purposes it has is to protect file formats and hardware locks from being reverse engineered. The fact that you don't have the spec means you don't have the right to use it, unless there are some very limited factors. One such factor under the DMCA is that software no longer exists that can access the device. The DMCA was written to protect companies like Sony from people reverse engineering their technology. If you don't believe me, read it yourself. You'll see very clearly that converting to LRF is at best a dark gray area.. and if Sony pressed the point, they'd likely win. Courts have ruled that unpublished file formats are a form of security. A weak form, but a form nonetheless.
Illegal and unethical are often two different things. In the EU, programs like MakeLRF are perfectly legal. In the US, they are perfectly ILLEGAL.
It's just.. let's be wary in saying things are in Black and White. It's obvious that there's no PURELY wrong or PURELY right state, and that's obvious because what is legal in Canada now is illegal in the US now. (re, my example with 1984.)