News: Copyright office issues new rights...

U.S. Copyright Office issues new rights

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP Internet Writer Wed Nov 22, 7:24 PM ET

NEW YORK - Cell phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced Wednesday.

Other copyright exemptions approved by the

Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books.

All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. Previously, Billington took an all-or-nothing approach, making exemptions difficult to justify.

The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years.

In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren't able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones' underlying programs.

The exemption granted to film professors authorizes the breaking of the CSS copy-protection technology found in most DVDs. Programs to do so circulate widely on the Internet, though it has been illegal to use or distribute them.

The professors said they need the ability to create compilations of DVD snippets to teach their classes

Looks like great news to me!

Why in the world would anyone consider this to be covered under copyright law? Did someone acutally think "fair use" meant fair use?

If it was indeed, as the article says, to allow full access to "underlying programs" maybe, just maybe, the user didn't pay to use those programs. If they granted this exception, perhaps next we'll be able to "unlock" demo versions of plug-ins that come with DAW software to allow us full access to those "underlying programs" that we didn't pay for.

However, off topic:

I know that it's possible to buy "unlocked" phones, and to unlock an existing phone by sanctioned or unsanctioned means, but I could never figure out what that gets you. I'm interest in this because I'm going to have to get a new cell phone soon, because the network my existing phone (and service) uses is going away.

If I have an unlocked phone, does that mean that if I have a Cingular account, I can switch to T-Mobile (with the commensurate expenses) and use the same phone, avoiding getting a new (usually free) phone that comes with the new account?

Or, more interestingly:

If I have Cingular service and I'm in a portion of the country where Cingular doesn't provide coverage (according to their coverage map), but some other network does, will my unlocked phone use the other network and send the bill (or not) to Cingular? Or will my phone still be smart enough to know that I'm not paying to use that network so it's not going to connect me anyway.

In short, why would I want an unlocked phone if I have only one cellular service account? There must be a good reason or netsharks wouldn't offer to do it for you for $18.95.

The main thing is access to the code to program it for a certain carrier. Often those codes are "locked" to a particular carrier, which means if you switch providers you have to buy a new phone & move all your crap to the new phone. (I didn't RTFA, but I've had this experience in the past with cell phones.)

Imagine buying a computer, then deciding to change the OS, but not being allowed to install it on your current, still usable PC - and even having to manually re-enter all your files?

If you bought the phone, you bought the right to use the underlying software - or not. That's a far cry from suddenly having the right to crack software you didn't pay for.

Perhaps I misunderstand you, but isn't this what we often do when we choose to re-format and completely re-install Windows., something that people seem to have to do all too frequenty? You can back up your data files and copy them back ot the refreshed computer, but you stil have to install all your programs. As far as I know, there's no backup program that will remember what I have installed and will re-install it from the backup with one click - other than a full disk image, which is what you probalby DON'T want if you needed to re-install the OS.

Apparently the provision about wireless phones is to enable them to connect to a network when there's firmware that specifically blocks that connection. It's to allow you to use your old phone with a new service, not to play games that may be locked out. I don't presently have a phone with a SIM card (I will, soon, because I can't avoid it) but apparently a lot of what you store on the phone (like phone numbers) is stored on that card so it can be transferred to another phone. But I suppose that it depends on the phone and how much you've stored. That sounds like a "personal backup" problem to me, one that could be solved if phonees had an easy way to dump their memory to an external storage medium and load it to another phone. Can you spell compatibility and standard interface?

Now, where am I going to find a "fix" for my copy of Sequoia 7 that uses a parallel port dongle that I can only use on my old computers? The new law doesn't require that an unprotected version be created, it only allows you to circumvent (however you do it) the copy protection.

Originally posted by MikeRivers

Perhaps I misunderstand you, but isn't this what we often do when we choose to re-format and completely re-install Windows.

 

It is, but that's what I belive Frank is contrasting (and why he used "imagine")

 

 

 

Apparently the provision about wireless phones is to enable them to connect to a network when there's firmware that specifically blocks that connection. It's to allow you to use your old phone with a new service

 

yup, that's what Frank seems to be saying (I think you guys are on the same page, just using different words).

 

It's one of the things that's still getting hammered out a bit in the DMCA, the scope 17 USC 1201 f,g exemptions and we've certainly seen plays to use the DMCA to try to protect market verticality (Lexmark, Apple, Storagetek, for example, have all tried to use that particular strategy)

 

 

. As far as I know, there's no backup program that will remember what I have installed and will re-install it from the backup with one click

 

FWIW - Mijenix used to make one...basically, in a Windows env the two problems are dealing with shared components (like Com controls) and the registry entries. The problem gets trickier if the installer is trying to hide stuff as a form of copy protection.

The 2 basic approaches are

1) try to monitor the install process so you can get a delta

2) backtrace stuff (which is a whole collection of little tricks and techniques which work to varying degrees)

 

#2 is one you have to use if the person wants to backup an install for which there is no install monitor record and its efficacy isn't 100% that's fo shizzy

I miss the good old days when "installation" involved copying all the files off the floppy disk to a directory on the hard drive. (or just running the program off the floppy). I used to have a program called Installer 3 or something like that which you opened first and pointed it to the installation file of the program you wanted to install. It was supposed to keep a log of everything that was written to the hard drive and where, during an installation. It made a lot of sense, it seemed, but the only use I ever acutally got out of it was to remind me of what program I had installed on the computer when I was making a new computer with the same stuff on it as the old computer.

I hear ya there, actually, a lot of folks I think do

I've kind of noticed a over the past few years where I find some developers escewing the registry for storage of persistent info (like settings, product registration, info, etc) and going back to what amounts to ini files (though they may name it something else) in the install dir or sometimes as some form of "template" file in whatever working dir is attached to the app (if there is one)

The mijenix product had a background process that could be set to watch for installs, which made it a bit easier - but, then you've got yet another background thing running - so pick your poison I suppose

Important music software registration and dongle content:

Statement Of The Librarian Of Congress Relating To Section 1201 Rulemaking

These things are not a violation under the DMCA and current copyright law for three years.

Could this mean that it's legal to use a cracked version of, as an example, Reason v.1 to use your purchased version of this software without inserting the content discs? Propellerheads no longer sells this version.

Does this mean that it is legal to use the cracked version of Logic 5.5.1 for Windows to circumvent using the dongle on a purchased copy of this software? eMagic is no longer independently in business, let alone selling Windows software. Mac users may also have a previous version that came with an ADP dongle, technology that is not reasonably available or supported.

This ruling, made permanent, may help many legitimate users continue to use legally purchased software as-intended.

Not entirely, IMHNAL[not a lawyer]O. As I read it, if you have the key disk and you still have a disk drive to take it, you're supposed to continue to use it. If you no longer have the key disk, you're not supposed to use the progam. If you have the key disk but no longer have a disk drive that they'll run in, or the disk is damaged and doesn't work and the company won't replace it, then you are allowed to circumvent the protection. But just because the program is no longer sold, you don't have blanket permission to run a cracked version.

Again, if you have the dongle and it still works, you're obligated to use it. If the dongle is broken, then you can circumvent it.

Of course it's up to you to develop the dongle or key disk bypass (don't expect any help from the software developer here), or take the instability risk of using a hacked version of the program that hasn't had sufficient testing. It's almost like getting brand new software.