Comments on: Cato Releases Report on P2P and DRM http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/02/14/cato-releases-report-on-p2p-and-drm/ by Derek Slater Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:07:35 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Surfing The Apocalypse http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/02/14/cato-releases-report-on-p2p-and-drm/comment-page-1/#comment-4050 Surfing The Apocalypse Thu, 01 Sep 2005 11:27:41 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/02/14/cato-releases-report-on-p2p-and-drm/#comment-4050 <a></a> Big Wave Surfing

Big Wave Surfing

]]> By: Bill Rosenblatt http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/02/14/cato-releases-report-on-p2p-and-drm/comment-page-1/#comment-3915 Bill Rosenblatt Thu, 17 Feb 2005 21:57:17 +0000 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cmusings/2005/02/14/cato-releases-report-on-p2p-and-drm/#comment-3915 <a></a> Thanks for the comments on our whitepaper. Perhaps we didn't make it clear, and perhaps I speak only for myself and not for my colleague Michael Einhorn, but for the record: - I'm not in favor of Grokster being reversed. "May" means "could," not "should." Actually, what I'm really not in favor of is the Betamax standard being revoked. - I'm also not a fan of DMCA (anticircumvention) as it currently stands. The primary problem I have with it, which is a bit different from the problems more usually cited, is that it shields technology vendors from the responsibility of creating technology that actually works. Technologists (of which I consider myself one; at least I have two degrees in computer science) should be free to innovate, but they should also not have legal crutches that absolve them from that responsibility. I would love to see someone sued for cracking a truly lame copy protection scheme (e.g., SunnComm's CD copy protection which could be overridden by hitting the Shift key while inserting the CD in the PC's drive) and the judge throw the case out on the basis that the copy protection scheme is not "effective."

Thanks for the comments on our whitepaper. Perhaps we didn’t make it clear, and perhaps I speak only for myself and not for my colleague Michael Einhorn, but for the record:

- I’m not in favor of Grokster being reversed. “May” means “could,” not “should.” Actually, what I’m really not in favor of is the Betamax standard being revoked.

- I’m also not a fan of DMCA (anticircumvention) as it currently stands. The primary problem I have with it, which is a bit different from the problems more usually cited, is that it shields technology vendors from the responsibility of creating technology that actually works. Technologists (of which I consider myself one; at least I have two degrees in computer science) should be free to innovate, but they should also not have legal crutches that absolve them from that responsibility. I would love to see someone sued for cracking a truly lame copy protection scheme (e.g., SunnComm’s CD copy protection which could be overridden by hitting the Shift key while inserting the CD in the PC’s drive) and the judge throw the case out on the basis that the copy protection scheme is not “effective.”

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