"for DMCA 1201 to kick in, the " #accessControl" must be "effective." What's "effective?"
An effective access control is one, that cannot be circumvented. If it can be circumvented, it was not effective in the first place. QED.
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@pluralistic Damn, you're such a great writer. Every time you post, I get dragged into reading about a boring topic because you make it so compelling. Thanks for doing this work.
@pluralistic C'est déjà le cas depuis bien longtemps.
@pluralistic As you have said, in this trumpistan era, it's time that some places - eu, here canada - stopped supporting dmca.
Surprise! That actually exists! It's called Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the "anticircumvention" clause, which establishes five-year sentences and $500k fines for anyone who bypasses an "effective access control" for a copyrighted work.
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Let's unpack that: every digital product has a "copyrighted work" at its core, because software is copyrighted. Digital systems are intrinsically very flexible: just overwrite, augment, or delete part of the software that powers the device or product, and you change how the product works.
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You can alter your browser to block ads; or alter your Android phone to run a privacy-respecting OS like Graphene; or alter your printer to accept generic ink, rather than checking each cartridge to confirm that it's the original manufacturer's product.
However, if the device is designed to prevent this - if it has an "access control" that restricts your ability to change the software - then DMCA 1201 makes those modifications into crimes.
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The act of providing someone with a tool to change how their own property works ("trafficking in circumvention devices") is a felony.
But there's a tiny saving grace here: for DMCA 1201 to kick in, the "access control" must be "effective." What's "effective?" There's the rub: no one knows.
The penalties for getting crosswise with DMCA 1201 are so grotendous that very few people have tried to litigate any of its contours.
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