full-disclosure - Re: when did piracy/theft become expression of freedom

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Message-ID: <85217.1327862455@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:40:55 -0500
From: Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu
To: Charles Morris <cmorris@...odu.edu>
Cc: "full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk" <full-disclosure@...ts.grok.org.uk>,
	"Zach C." <fxchip@...il.com>
Subject: Re: when did piracy/theft become expression of
	freedom

On Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:53:12 EST, Charles Morris said:

> A) Every time you execute/install/download a program you are
> committing evil data theft by not only copying

Actually, at least in the US, the copy into RAM required to execute a program
is already covered in 17 USC 117 (a)(1).

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000117----000-.html

There is no similar rule covering the ephemeral incidental copy created as part
of viewing a webpage, nor is there case law covering it, mostly because
everybody is too scared to bring a test case to trial because it may result in
a precident nobody likes. So the general case law has tended towards a
gentleman's agreement that a website has implicitly given permission to
authorized users to make ephemeral copies similar to 117(a)(1), and prosecute
unauthorized users under 18 USC 1030 and other computer hacking statutes, and
we're all going to pretend the 'Save As..' menu option isn't there because it
makes our collective brains hurt. ;)

> B) You can't "copyright" or "own" a number, all digital
> representations are numbers, due to the boolean nature (no fuzzy
> data), etc.

Nice try of saying "the encoding isn't the information". But that horse left
the barn when sheet music became copyrightable - because whether it's symbols
on sheet music, or grooves on a phonograph record, or digital recordings, you
can copyright *that particular sequence* of symbols, wiggles, or numbers as
expression.

Heck, for that matter, the sequence of letters in a book. ;)

> C) Any data is a form of any other data given a specific transform,
> e.g. manifold / encryption key + algo, something as trivial as XOR

Again, nice try.  See Adobe v Skylarov and the use of ROT-13 for an
example of how *that* logic worked out with respect to the DMCA
anti-circumvention clause.

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