"Norwegian teen cleared of DVD piracy charges"

From: Russell McOrmond <russell _-at-_ flora.ca>
To: letters (at) thecitizen.southam.ca
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 19:50:05 -0500 (EST)

Dear Ottawa Citizen Editor,

  The Reuters story you carried today on page F4 is factually incorrect.  
The software that Jon Johansen wrote is unrelated in any way to "a program
enabling unauthorized copying of DVD movies".  It is simply a piece of
software created to allow him to view legally purchased DVD movies on his
DVD player of choice (the DVD ROM in his home computer).  This was in fact
what the case was about, and justice won out over the special economic
interests (Hollywood).

  This is an issue that the Citizen did a feature on last year (April 04, 
2002 "The Anti-Copyright Crusader").

  Not only do I agree with the court that what Jon Johansen did should be
recognized as legal, but that I believe that what the DVD-CCA (AKA:  
Hollywood movie producers) have done with the creation of the technology
Jon had to get around is of questionable legality.  The DVD-CCA is trying
to tie the legal purchase of a DVD movie with the purchase of a DVD player
that is "authorized" by them.  I believe this is considered "tied selling"
under Canada's Competition Act.  While the Competition bureau hasn't been
interested in prosecuting the DVD-CCA thus far, this issue is not going to
remain under their radar forever.

  My opinion on this issue is quite simple: Any 'hardware assist' for 
communications, whether it be eye-glasses, VCR's, or personal computers, 
must be under the control of the citizen and not a third party.

  Corollary: The "content industries", such as the motion picture and
recording industries, are not legitimate stakeholders in the discussion of
what features should or should not exist in my personal computer or VCR,
any more than they are a legitimate stakeholder in the production of my
corrective eye-glasses. If a member of a content industry doesn't like the
technology that exists in a given market sector, be it consumer
electronics in the home or personal computers, they can simply not offer
their products/services into that market.

  Quite simply, if Hollywood doesn't like the fact that DVD's can be
played on DVD players they don't control, then they can simply stop
releasing movies on DVD.  It is their choice, and their desire to be
government protected control-freaks should simply be ignored.


  For more information on the DVD issue, see my submission to Industry
Canada at http://www.flora.ca/copyright-2001-cmpda-reply.shtml

  See also:  An open letter to the to Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital
Access (CCFDA)
  http://weblog.flora.ca/article.php3?story_id=320


P.S.  Many other publications carried this story, but few made the same
error. For instance the Montreal Gazette, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star
all published more accurate stories.

---
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
 Any 'hardware assist' for communications, whether it be eye-glasses, 
 VCR's, or personal computers, must be under the control of the citizen 
 and not a third party.   -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

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