27 replies to this topic

[Cebus Capucinis]

No no, my feelings have never been hurt! I love a good debate, I just wish we could have a pub and a good beer between us for it! I am very thankful that you have been around to point out my inconsistencies, it's a very great learning experience for me! I have the interest in law and want to go to law school but I am very lacking in experience and depth and I know that a lot of what I post is conjecture. I am very happy to see someone is capable of slapping down my theories once in a while!

It is always better to have a good debate and be proven wrong than to never learn anything in the first place! Now if you were to insult my mother instead... But nope! Quite the opposite! Very happy to have someone to bounce ideas off and take different viewpoints!

[Nukey Shay]

I think that copyright is purposely vague so that the courts are able to throw it around either way

It's stated that a tangible form is anything apart from the abstract (like ideas or facts), and that tangible forms are given control to the author, but then lists a bunch of exceptions. Nondescript things like portions of said forms being "fair use", so long as the heart differs (i.e. a prototype can be considered to be a portion of a completed work...and "heart" is not given a 100% clear definition). And the work can be considered to be personal or a work-for-hire (with more exceptions listed). Copyright existing for 70 years or 120 years beyond creation (without even listing how the issue of trademarks would affect either).



But then, everything that exists for obsolete systems could be considered exempt according to the DMCA...an exemption fought for and won by the Internet Archive project:

Quote

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete …A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.

...in order to transfer such "obsolete" media to modern forms.


Define "no longer manufactured"
Define "no longer reasonably available"
Define where this exemption can be applied, since IAP is not specifically named as the sole receipiant of this exemption.


After a while, it starts sounding like those aliens in Mars Attacks.

"Ack ack ack Aaaack-ack ack ack Ack!"
"Ack, ack ack-ack ack?"
"ACK!"

[Cebus Capucinis]

Very true. I think it's such an interesting blend of legal technical theory and then actual technological theory that it becomes such a gigantic, convoluted mess that it's very hard to get anywhere within. But then again, how else would attorneys be able to charge clients millions of dollars?