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Old 10-04-2007, 09:35 AM   #69
Xenophon
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT View Post
That's what I thought too, Dan, but several people have claimed here that the act of removing copy protection is not illegal, merely the distribution or development of tools which do so.
I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV... so this is certainly not legal advice on which you can place any sort of reliance whatsoever.

That said... I have followed this subject very carefully, including a full semester graduate seminar on Copyright issues in the digital world (at CMU, led by Dr. Dave Farber). In the course of that seminar, we were told by a fair variety of quite eminent lawyers that the situation is as summarized above by HarryT (who is referring back to other posts including one of mine). Those eminent lawyers also said that this is their legal interpretation, that it seems like a good interpretation of the law, and that this interpretation has not yet been tested in court.

Translating from legal-speak: "We think this is a solid interpretation of the law. So do lots of other eminent lawyers. It seems to be the general consensus of the legal community. One never knows what'll happen in front of a judge and jury."

Xenophon

P.S. Of course this is all based on U.S. law. Your mileage may vary, especially in other countries.
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