A bit of good news re: the DMCA. According to Drew Clark at Tech Daily, the Federal Circuit had some pretty serious questions for Chamberlain in its appeal over whether the DMCA can outlaw interoperable garage door opener remotes:
"In a free market, aren't consumers free to assume they can use a product" without a specific warning to the contrary? Judge Sharon Prost asked.
Judge Richard Linn questioned whether "now consumers have no expectation that when they put a key in the ignition of their car and start 26 computers, they are not violating the law?"
They must be on notice that they are breaking the law if they do not follow the manufacturer's directions, Fink said. Just as consumers who view DVDs on players without licensed encryption keys violate the law, so do consumers who use unauthorized door openers, he said.
And then, the true motives come out:
Fink said Chamberlain is not concerned about piracy but about competing products that use weak security systems. He said his company could be blamed for theft due to a faulty product.
Nope, not about piracy. It's about competing products and finding a way to crush them through law suits rather than through an actual battle in the marketplace. Fortunately, the judges weren't so easily amused:
But that position led Judge Arthur Gajarsa to ask whether someone disabling a homeowner's security system meant to protect a Picasso painting would constitute a DMCA violation. Fink said he does not know.
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