Re: "Engineer for Haloid Corp. arrested for producing circumvention device"

[David Honig]

At 06:46 PM 7/21/01 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>Had the DCMA been in effect in the 1950s, the Xerox Corporation and 
>its execs and engineers probably would have faced charges for 
>producing a "circumvention device" for enabling copyright violators. 
>What, really, is the difference between a Xerox machine and something 
>that allows copies of electronic text?
>
>(Both have alternate uses besides pirating. Backups, for example.)

(Had the DCMA existed earlier:)

Some publisher would have jailed the dude who noticed a property of 
selenium films exposed to light and applied it to copying documents.

Even if he invented it in a foreign country.

Reality is certainly more twisted than fiction.