Anti-DMCA crusaders fight for the right to crack DRM

What's on the table? Jailbreaking your iPhone, busting the DRM on music and movies if authentication servers ever die, ripping clips from DVDs for noncommercial use, breaking digital locks on DRM schemes that "compromise the security of personal computers," and cracking open DRM on subscription streaming video "where the provider has only made available players for a limited number of platforms," among others.

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Some important issues are being discussed at this hearing. I know many, many people who use iPhones and would love to jailbreak them but fear the legal consequences. Hopefully, the US Copyright Office will use some common sense instead of pandering to the MPAA/RIAA like everyone else seems to be doing these days.


TA

Originally posted by TheAssociate

What's on the table? Jailbreaking your iPhone, busting the DRM on music and movies if authentication servers ever die, ripping clips from DVDs for noncommercial use, breaking digital locks on DRM schemes that "compromise the security of personal computers," and cracking open DRM on subscription streaming video "where the provider has only made available players for a limited number of platforms," among others.

source

Some important issues are being discussed at this hearing. I know many, many people who use iPhones and would love to jailbreak them but fear the legal consequences. Hopefully, the US Copyright Office will use some common sense instead of pandering to the MPAA/RIAA like everyone else seems to be doing these days.


TA

It's funny just the other day an Ipod user (sorry not one myself) was telling me you can hack your older Ipods to do things like play video or add games.

The interesting part is that instead of giving the options on their first versions (which was possible) they instead hold back features so instead of having people buy 1, they buy each new version as it comes out.

Yay for consumerism.

Yeah, it kinda sucks that companies do things like that, but it is their intellectual property and they have the right to do with it as they please within the confines of the law. However, it doesn't really make sense to do things like that, from a business standpoint. As you said, the original version was hackable, so instead of buying the newer (i assume) more expensive version, people are just going to hack the old one. What would've made more sense is to implement the features in the original version and charge more. Then wait until new bells and whistles are developed to make a new version and charge accordingly.

On the other hand, hacks by definition are forcing software to do something it wasn't designed to do. It could be that hacking the device in such a manner causes instability or other issues.

There's a lot to consider in this situation, and i don't have all the evidence. But if it works for Apple, more power to them.


TA

edit to add: thanks for the reply, star for you.

[edit on 2-5-2009 by TheAssociate]