Remembering an Era

How is the first decade of the new millennium going to remembered? I can tell you how I would remember it, if it were to end tomorrow.

Excuse me – My I sue you? The first 4 years of this decade has been filled with lawsuit upon lawsuit. From the RIAA going on a lawsuit binge, to the SCO soap opera in court with IBM. The latest is it’s illegal to copy DVD’s, sort of. A judge decided that making a back up of a video DVD is illegal and 321 Studios must cease and desist the distribution of their DVD X Copy program.

So let me get this straight. I can make legitimate backups of my software and audio CDs. But I can’t back up my movie DVDs, because then I would be breaking the DVD copy protection, which is against the law?

The last 4 years have been mostly case law upon case law deciding what direction technology law is going. Everyone knows most of the time organizations with deep pockets win court cases. Thank goodness for the EFF and ACLU who have come to the rescue to otherwise helpless defendants.

I would rather have too much freedom, than not enough. - Charles Conway