On Sat, 2005-10-15 at 18:08 -0400, Chad Smith wrote:
Over 3 years to get 25% saturation? It's almost worth it. But you yourself,
coder as you are, could create hacked filters for Microsoft Office in those
three-years time, and claim the victory.
Actually not, there are two big legal reasons why this is not possible in
the US and one in Europe. Namely the DMCA and software patents in the US
and the EUCD in Europe. The DMCA and EUCD prevent "cirumvention" of
so-called security mechanisms. Simply calling something a security
mechanism is enough, even if it's as simple as ROT13 or XOR. Look at
Adobe vs Dmitry Sklyarov. Software patents allow litigants to attack end
users, whether they are individuals, corporations or developers. Simply
using a method (e.g. XML serialization) is enough to bring on expensive
litigation.
Not that US laws don't apply to Europe in practice, look at the whole
"DVD-Jon" caper: The DMCA is only a US problem, the EUCD hadn't even been
passed, and even if it had Norway is not in the EU. Yet the mainstream
articles in the US were whining about him breaking laws that didn't exist.
-Lars
Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog ...
... until you start barking.
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