The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Comments on: Vendor turns DRM against Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real

Aha! Now *I* have a strategy! 

Posted Friday 11th May 2007 22:49 GMT

Since it has been adequately demonstrated that publishing copyrighted works enables violation of copyright, I propose to file suit under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act against the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and anyone else I can think of for knowingly, willingly, and deliberately enabling circumvention of copyright.

After all, if the copyrighted works were never published, copyright could never be violated! This is logic so simple that even a politician can understand it.

I will, of course, demand damages of a mere $500 per violation - and of course, one "violation" is equal to one track on a CD, vinyl record, or cassette tape (no one would eve copy tracks from an 8-track cartidge, so they're exempt), one title on a DVD, one file on a computer, or one Web page or link on a Web page, whichever is greater.

I think this will come to roughly US$50,000,000 per Windows PC...

I may even settle out of court for one percent of the statutory damages. After all, I can afford to be generous.

Damages to be paid to the EFF, of course.

What a silly lawsuit, thanks to the infamous Clinton's DMCA thing 

Posted Friday 11th May 2007 23:50 GMT

.. which allows any small business to sue both same level competitors and bigger ones in a hope to get a lot of bucks...

Their claims that something they designed must be used or it's breaking the laws it's more than just flawed, it's really crazy. If any judges is going to allow these guys to get away with it and earn some easy bucks out of it then that could cause so many issues to any business in the world that the economy could collapse, really. Allowing these ones to win would mean that more and more will start claiming the same in any field and not just the IT one.

Funniest thing I've seen in a while 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 00:16 GMT

Of course, they don't expect this to actually fly. But what a fabulous publicity stunt.

-fred

crazzziest frivolous lawsuit ever... 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 02:27 GMT

what a crazzziest frivolous lawsuit...

MRT or whatever the name is...must be forced to pay all legal fees to Microsoft, Real, Apple etc...

I guess that shoud be enough punishment & a lesson for these nuts...

Publicity Stunt? 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 13:31 GMT

Sure, because nothing drives sales like taking all your potential customers to court... *cough*RIAA,MPAA*cough*

hurf 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 22:59 GMT

surely they should sue the artists because they make content that can be copied and thus piracy is their fault??

This may well backfire.. 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 23:27 GMT

In some states, that might well fall foul of the RICO or other organised crime acts to sue in that way..

You gotta admit... 

Posted Saturday 12th May 2007 23:43 GMT

....They must have testicles of steel to even try to get this one to fly.

Plug the analogue hole 

Posted Sunday 13th May 2007 07:15 GMT

James Cleveland above says 'they should sue the artists because they make content'

The real problem is the 'analogue hole'. The analogue path between the artists mouth and the microphone is a weakness in the DRM technology system. It needs to be plugged. Placing a sock in it would help.

Having watched some of last night's Eurovision Song Contest, that method would certainly improve the output of many recording artists.

*Hard Rock Halluleja* 

Posted Sunday 13th May 2007 16:11 GMT

oh well, I don't think Finland will win agian though.

What's next? 

Posted Sunday 13th May 2007 17:43 GMT

Now that sounds great, suing them, because they haven't been using their product, hahaha, dream of any die hard money sucking businessman.

Hello pot, have you met kettle? 

Posted Monday 14th May 2007 03:12 GMT

They need to amend the cease and desist order and name themselves as well. They mention the Adobe Flash Player and if you go to this link http://www.mediarightstech.com/demo/demolarge.html they show a clip about their product. Yep, they use none other than Flash for their product demo.

The obvious defense... 

Posted Monday 14th May 2007 03:36 GMT

The easiest way for a company with deep pockets like Microsoft to deal with such a letter is to "arrange" for a crack of MRT's DRM to appear in the wild. If it's no longer effective (or at least no more effective than other DRMs), MRT's claims have no merit. Of course, this would require violating the DMCA in the process. It's a regular DMCA-22!

I actually applaud MRT for having the nerve to go through with this blatantly sarcastic critique of the DMCA. If a couple more companies got up enough pluck to make a statement like that, the whole system might actually come crashing down. Alas, I don't think they were joking...

I hope they win... 

Posted Monday 14th May 2007 09:32 GMT

...it will remove any doubt in my mind, that world has gone quite insane. I shall confine it to the asylum, and get on with my life.

Way, IPR litigation went recursive! 

Posted Monday 14th May 2007 13:52 GMT

This little infinite loop could suck all lawyer cycles before the Congress break switch trips, yoohoo!

Copyrighted 

Posted Monday 14th May 2007 14:58 GMT

It's not a violation of the DMCA if the work being displayed isn't copyright. As such, if the demo on their website isn't copyrighted and doesn't contain any copyrighted materials, they would not be violating anything.

Don’t Miss

Dollar101 uses for a former merchant banker

Comment Innovators who work out the best one will make a killing

The Year in Operating Systems: No battle of big ideas

Small change for 2009

Photography: Yes, you have rights

Comment Unless the police say you haven't

Enormous HP box spotted from space

Exclusive pics of Peterborough packaging pandemonium