Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 01:03:01 -0700 From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com> To: "Rahul Siddharthan" <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: "David Johnson" <djohnson@acuson.com>, <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: MacOS Themes, was RE: Windriver, Slackware and FreeBSD Message-ID: <006e01c0c7dd$fd2c1b80$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010418091652.A27000@lpt.ens.fr>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>-----Original Message----- >From: Rahul Siddharthan [mailto:rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in] > >Another bit of uneasy news was Apple's threatening a Mac theme editor, >http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?NewsID=2773 >Note that this is quite different from threatening themes.org: this >editor was for creating themes for *MacOS itself*. > This is fallout from the Napster decision, I wouldn't worry about it, and indeed the entire Napster thing is just a rehash of the lawsuits over the copy protection software that took place back in the 80's. What the problem is, is that companies that have a lot of infringement that takes place against their products, such as graphic design firms, music producers, and the like, have been searching for ways to technologically impede copying of their stuff. They tried in the 80's and failed. Now they are trying again with things like CSS and such. Apple's attempt is to embed the material in the OS and then say that since reverse engineering the OS is illegal, it makes it illegal to copy their material. What all these copyright holders have been seeking for years is either legislation or caselaw in the US that in effect states that an entity that manufactures a device or software that aids in copying material that is technologically impeded from being copied, is aiding and abetting the actual copyright violation, and thus even though they are not actually performing the infringement themselves, they are just as guilty as the actual infringers. If the copyright holders can obtain this legislation or caselaw, they can then put the people that write programs like DeCSS or the Themes editor in jail. Thus, this then makes the technological impedement they have designed actually worthwhile. The problem with Napster, is that they were so blatently and obviously out-and-out aiding and abetting music copyright infringers, (after all, a number of internal company e-mails and testimony was obtained that showed that the Napster people were encouraging people to violate copyrights) that it was possible for the copyright holders to finally get a court to side with their viewpoint, and thus they were able to obtain some case decisions that they can use in future court rulings. Apple, being inspired by this, is going to attempt to jump on the bandwagon and try to get some more rulings. I'm sure a lot of other companies will too. The reason I wouldn't worry about it is that all of this runs afoul of what you would call the "political sanity test" Simply put, Congress isn't going to tolerate the courts putting people in jail for using some copyright-infringing-enabler program (like Themes editor) to modify their own copy of MacOS in their own home as long as they aren't selling the modified MacOS and thereby depriving the copyright holder (Apple) of revenue. Companies like Apple can wring their hands all they want and rattle on about "controlling the presentation of MacOS" but unless they can prove financial harm to themselves, Congress is going to do what the people want, and if the people want Themes for themselves they are going to get Themes for themselves. With Napster, it was easy to see that the major record companies were being deprived of revenue by the existence of Napster. But, nobody is going to believe that Apple is being deprived of revenue just due to the existence of MTE. Nor is anyone going to believe that the major movie houses are being deprived of revenue just because people use DeCSS to view DVD's they bought from the store on their Linux systems. So, even if people like Apple and the Movie studios end up winning their politically stupid lawsuits, all that will happen is the people will complain and Congress will make another exemption in the copyright law (like they had to for photocopiers) and that will be that. Ted Mittelstaedt tedm@toybox.placo.com Author of: The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide Book website: http://www.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?006e01c0c7dd$fd2c1b80$1401a8c0>