one point for us! i feel this was really a gimme though because it was so widespread that it would have been like banning alcohol lol. now the "massive government conspiracy" is going to use this as leverage to say 'hey we gave you this; you have to give us this much now...' and ban something else.

who knows...

Quote :

"It’s no longer illegal under the DMCA to jailbreak your iPhone or bypass a DVD’s CSS in order to obtain fair use footage for educational purposes or criticism. These are the new rules that were handed down moments ago by the U.S. Copyright Office. This is really big. Like, really big. The office looks at copyright law every three years in order to make revisions or exemptions. The six “classes” now exempt from prosecution under the DMCA are: 1. Defeating a lawfully obtained DVD’s encryption for the sole purpose of short, fair use in an educational setting or for criticism 2. Computer programs that allow you to run lawfully obtained software on your phone that you otherwise would not be able to run aka Jailbreaking to use Google Voice on your iPhone 3. Computer programs that allow you to use your phone on a different network aka Jailbreaking to use your iPhone on T-Mobile 4. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) for the purposes of legitimate security testing or investigation 5. Cracking computer programs protected by dongles when the dongles become obsolete or are no longer being manufactured 6. Having an ebook be read aloud (is for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing. This is easily the biggest tech news I have come across in quite some time—we’re talking years here. I’m actually going to need a few moments to digest all of this."

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/now-legal-in-the-u-s-jailbreaking-your-iphone-ripping-a-dvd-for-educational-purposes/

7/26/2010 1:04:45 PM

lol. Im a critic so all my broken drm is ok.

7/26/2010 1:12:33 PM

I see you're deliberately ignoring the other criteria, "lawfully obtained"

7/26/2010 1:19:06 PM

Glad to see a lot of this.

10 bucks AT&T has a lawsuit to prevent the iPhone bit by the end of the day though.

7/26/2010 1:20:28 PM

The new ruling is full of awesomeness! There are just a few more things they need to cover:

7. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) requiring a disk or online connection for the purposes of playing a legally obtained video game on a computer with no optical drive or internet connection.

8. Circumventing music and video encryption (DRM) for the purposes of playing legally obtained music on any music or video player device the content owner possesses.

7/26/2010 2:20:02 PM

actually the way i read the ruling it seemed to say something even larger which is that DRMs can't exist to protect simple access, they must actually stop you from infringing on a copyright

for example, it's still illegal to crack a DVDs DRM code in order to make a duplicate because copying is a copyright infringement (some exceptions apply)
however, it sounds like product activation and license keys which offer you access after the fact that you purchased the software is free game to break, as long as you stay within copyright and EULA terms

7/26/2010 3:51:58 PM

where does it say you have to obey eula?

7/26/2010 6:43:36 PM

...when you agree to any EULA that's when you have to obey the terms it contains? don't agree with the terms, don't click the "I agree" button, and ignorance isn't an excuse to not obey

7/26/2010 9:47:22 PM

It's like Santa's come to government and given them common sense. I am suspicious of this.

7/26/2010 9:51:01 PM

Quote :

"...when you agree to any EULA that's when you have to obey the terms it contains? don't agree with the terms, don't click the "I agree" button, and ignorance isn't an excuse to not obey"

but isn't this exactly what this is about, things that they can't tell you not to do (well things you can ignore at least)

7/26/2010 9:59:18 PM

So #7 means games like Assassins Creed II, which is a single-player game that requires a constant internet connection to play solely for copy protection purposes can now legally have the DRM cracked so you don't have to be online to play it. Very interesting.

7/28/2010 9:26:30 AM

^They have that in the new StarCraft II as well

7/28/2010 10:50:49 AM

^,^^ The #7 and #8 I posted were my own, they are not real but I was hoping for them to become real. Sorry for the confusion

7/28/2010 11:08:29 AM

^^Negative.

...though it is still pretty common in other new games.

7/28/2010 11:20:21 AM

SC2 just has an online registration. After that you can play single-player offline as much as you want, but it does require activation online at first.

7/29/2010 6:40:41 AM