Court Backs Dismissal of Digital Copyright Claim(CN) - General Electric did not infringe on a power supplier's digital copyrights when it used protected software unlocked through a hacked security key, the 5th Circuit ruled.Excerpt, read the rest here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/07/23/29099.htm

Court Backs Dismissal of Digital Copyright Claim(CN) - General Electric did not infringe on a power supplier's digital copyrights when it used protected software unlocked through a hacked security key, the 5th Circuit ruled.Excerpt, read the rest here: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/07/23/29099.htm

The way the story reads, MGE was awarded 4.6M in damages for Copyright infringement, and misappropriation of Trade Secrets, but an additional claim of the DMCA was dismissed. Where I worked we had problems with hardware dongles for Software too. We had purchased and licensed Postscript rasterizing software on a MAC known as a RIP. It was also installed with a hardware dongle required to run it. For whatever reason we were told from higher up not to purchase the Software Maintenance Contract for it. A few months later the Dongle failed. When I called to have it replaced I was told it was going to cost $5000. Which was the cost for a single license. This for something we had a valid license to use, and the dongle was nothing more then a small board plugging into an RS-232 connector. The actual cost was $20 plus shipping. I happen to work for a Fortune 10 (At the time) company, so I told them that we didn't mind paying for a software support issue, since we hadn't have the maintenance contract, but we weren't going to pay for their copy protection failing, so I told them we were going to go to our legal department, which of course they backed down immediately and sold it to us at cost $20 plus shipping. So we settled for that. A few weeks later we were told to go ahead and purchase the Maintenance contract though.

Here is some more news in relation to what was posted yesterday and is of interest in many areas. I originally posted this at another game forum I visit.This could have an impact further down the line and in my opinion, make the $5,000,000 class action lawsuit against Ubi seem small, especially in the wake of the Sony fiasco where Sony was told by a deputy director of the department of Homeland Security that they were not allowed to install any software on anyone's PC without their express permission.Apple loses big in DRM ruling: jailbreaks are "fair use" details the rulings of the Library of Congress in relation to the DMCA that was enacted back in 1998.

*Removed because mgh pointed out how I was wrong*

if your disc cracks, or if the activation servers go offline

if you are correct these eleven words should be in bold.one violates copywrite, by your interpretation, only if one DOES NOT legally have a right to use the software. you are OK if you have purchased, or made lawful agreement to obtain, use rights.--

if you are correct these eleven words should be in bold.one violates copywrite, by your interpretation, only if one DOES NOT legally have a right to use the software. you are OK if you have purchased, or made lawful agreement to obtain, use rights.--

I don't see any reason why that should be illegal. If I purchase an add on for FS which requires a code or contact/verification from a server to use. And I lost the code or the business is no longer in existence or the servers gone etc... then why should I not be able to by pass these security elements?After all did I pay to purchase the wares or am I just renting them as long as the author allows it? I've questioned such tactics in the FS world for many years now. Torn by the understanding that authors need to protect their work and the rights I should have to a product once I buy a copy of it. Such as using it forever if I wish, long after the author/company is gone or installing it on as many machines as I want as long as I own all the machines.

if you are correct these eleven words should be in bold.one violates copywrite, by your interpretation, only if one DOES NOT legally have a right to use the software. you are OK if you have purchased, or made lawful agreement to obtain, use rights.--

I don't see any reason why that should be illegal. If I purchase an add on for FS which requires a code or contact/verification from a server to use. And I lost the code or the business is no longer in existence or the servers gone etc... then why should I not be able to by pass these security elements?After all did I pay to purchase the wares or am I just renting them as long as the author allows it? I've questioned such tactics in the FS world for many years now. Torn by the understanding that authors need to protect their work and the rights I should have to a product once I buy a copy of it. Such as using it forever if I wish, long after the author/company is gone or installing it on as many machines as I want as long as I own all the machines.

That's not even the best part of that. The best part is that if the DRM prevents use of the product, you are allowed to circumvent it. In other words, if your disc cracks, or if the activation servers go offline, you are free to bypass the DRM.

That is wrong, you're not. The Registrar considered the question of authentication servers and rejected it."IV. Other Classes Considered but Not Recommended B. Lawfully purchased sound recordings, audiovisual works, and software programs distributed commercially in digital format by online music and media stores and protected by techological measures that depend on the continued availability of authenticating servers when such servers cease functioning because the store fails or for other reasons."http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/RM-2008-8.pdf

if you are correct these eleven words should be in bold.one violates copywrite, by your interpretation, only if one DOES NOT legally have a right to use the software. you are OK if you have purchased, or made lawful agreement to obtain, use rights.--

Removing because of something mgh posted up that proves me wrong.

That is wrong, you're not. The Registrar considered the question of authentication servers and rejected it."IV. Other Classes Considered but Not Recommended B. Lawfully purchased sound recordings, audiovisual works, and software programs distributed commercially in digital format by online music and media stores and protected by techological measures that depend on the continued availability of authenticating servers when such servers cease functioning because the store fails or for other reasons."http://www.copyright.gov/1201/2010/RM-2008-8.pdf

You are correct, however speaking as someone who bought music through Sony's version of iTunes and can't access it anymore, and as someone who has had several DVDs and CDs physically crack and become unusable from normal use, including one instance where I sent it back for warranty near the end of warranty and it cracked again, while you may be right on the legal aspect, the moral aspect still fights that tooth and nail on the grounds because of failures in manufacturing or failures in the DRM. Yes Sony did allow for people to use a tool they created to convert the songs to MP3s, which I did, and I still have backed up on to CD legally by that document and the DMCA. However this does not excuse faults that are not the users fault. As for that game, Steam had it on and Christmas sale for 2 bucks, so I bought it through them. Although the fact that my Collectors Edition copy of the game BROKE from normal usage angers me greatly, especially when this is a commonly reported problem of the Collectors Edition of that game according to the official forums!As for authentication servers, if the servers go down, there should be nothing blocking you from bypassing the DRM morally (legally may be a different matter however, but legality and morality tend to be two separate things far too often), as the DRM prevents the usage of the program in general. Note that in none of these cases are the products attained illegally, and I condemn those who do pirate.

If a disk fails then you're either entitled to a replacement or not under the relevant sale of goods law. If you're not, then you have to bite the bullet and pay for a replacement in the same way as you would for any other purchase. You may not circumvent copy protection of a dongle unless it's "no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."Incidentally, the Library of Congress also states "Dongles are a type of hardware that attach either to the printer port or the USB port of a comptuter in order to make secured software function". On that definition, FS9 Disk 4, for example, isn't legally a dongle. On the wider point, the law also has to reflect a balance between different groups in society. Sometimes we end up on what we may feel is the wrong side. However, law applies to everyone: morality is an individual matter. Where do we stop if we argue "something may be legally wrong but in my personal view it's morally OK so I'm justified in breaking the law"?

If a disk fails then you're either entitled to a replacement or not under the relevant sale of goods law. If you're not, then you have to bite the bullet and pay for a replacement in the same way as you would for any other purchase. You may not circumvent copy protection of a dongle unless it's "no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace."Incidentally, the Library of Congress also states "Dongles are a type of hardware that attach either to the printer port or the USB port of a comptuter in order to make secured software function". On that definition, FS9 Disk 4, for example, isn't legally a dongle. On the wider point, the law also has to reflect a balance between different groups in society. Sometimes we end up on what we may feel is the wrong side. However, law applies to everyone: morality is an individual matter. Where do we stop if we argue "something may be legally wrong but in my personal view it's morally OK so I'm justified in breaking the law"?

But you're not justified to break the law period unless it's something very important, and this is not. For example, you are justified to break the law to save the life of an innocent, but you are not in order to get a new car, or a new piece of software to replace the broken one. As for circumventing copy protection, all I'll point out is this, there are a LOT of issues with DRM, and because of that, my stance on DRM is not the same as the law's because I realize that the DRM has a tendency to cause problems like you would not believe. That is not saying that I would break the law intentionally without good intentions, however if you are going to put DRM on something, make sure it is working every so often, rather than just letting an old product wind up useless because you failed to provide a fix to something that you put on there after a few years because "it's not worth supporting anymore" and don't expect someone to buy a new copy if you can't keep your stuff working properly. I've seen too many cases of a developer trying to force someone to buy a new version just to fix problems in an old version. If you're going to do it, do it right, and don't force someone to buy a new copy/version because you messed up the code, DRM, manufacturing, or support on the previous version. All that people like me want to see is support that doesn't force you to buy a new copy because the developer slacked off.Also, for the record, I have seen multiple instances where when a developer does release a no-cd patch for their software, it actually is a cracked version of the game that was released by a cracking team. The two main ones that come to mind are Rainbow Six Vegas and Max Payne 2 from Steam. Bohemia Interactive is actually on my good side, along with Egosoft, because they actually remove the DRM after a fair amount of time.

Ubi deserved all the guff they got from all directions when it was learned that the were using Reloaded's fix. What makes it worse is that they do not want discussion of cracks on their forums (their right), yet actually haved pinned posts on how to install them for Starforce protected games like SHIII.

After Ubi was served with a $5,000,000 class action lawsuit, they stopped using SF. Any game that used SF was apparently rereleased without it. I took a chance and bought another copy of SHIII, this time off Steam, this past New Years after I couldn't get the disk version to work, even with the crack and following Ubi's directions. A game really doesn't need CP to actually run, but due to disk checks, or as with Ubi's new DRM, the disk has to be in the drive or authenticated online before it will run or continue to run.Yeah, I remember the no mod discussion on the iL2 forums, but the irony is, mods were freely discussed on Ubi's GR forums with no penalty.