As I wrote over in another thread
(here):
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Xenophon
For those who are late to the party, it is worth knowing a few things about posters and their positions on DRM. - Pretty much no one here at MobileRead actually likes it.
- There is a group of posters who keep referring to the "exception" as a reason why anyone can legally remove DRM from an eBook (one of them posted above). Other posters claim that this exception applies only to individuals who are themselves handicapped in ways that require read-aloud functionality.
- There is another group of posters who keep claiming the removing DRM is "almost certainly illegal" under the DMCA. Or even "clearly illegal" under the DMCA. Some of them have posted above.
- Still other posters (including me) maintain that the legal status of removing DRM from legally acquired content (for personal use only) is entirely unclear and will remain so either until congress passes new legislation or the courts straighten it out via case law and precedent. In taking this position, I am arguing from authority (always a poor tactic!) having heard eminent legal experts say that removing DRM from legally acquired content is obviously legal, and other equally eminent legal experts say that it is obviously illegal.
- MobileRead site policy is to support legal acquisition of eBooks and to forbid discussion of techniques for "pirating" ebooks along with forbidding discussion of tools and sites for same. (I think I got that right...)
All of the above is speaking in terms of U.S. law, of course. Other countries, other laws.
We now return to your regularly scheduled disagreements...
Xenophon |
It seems worth repeating the above.
That said, Harmon appears to fall into a fourth camp (the "clearly legal" group). I've heard a bunch of eminent legal experts take that position, but as a non-lawyer I do not trust my notes to correctly represent their arguments -- which is why I have not attempted to present any of those arguments here. Harmon's analysis doesn't look like any of what I see in the notes I took in the IP seminar I attended, but who knows whether that means anything or not.
Anyway, I can assure you (and especially HarryT) that there are plenty of lawyers who specialize in U.S. IP Law who agree with Harmon's conclusion. And plenty of others who don't. Go figure!
Xenophon