Yet more DMCA delights. I’ve previously reported on how the DMCA — ostensibly intended to protect copyrighted and encrypted media from hacking and piracy — has been used to outlaw third-party inkjet supplies and to make cellphone/camera batteries proprietary. Now here’s a new twist.
A district court in Boston has used the DMCA to grant a preliminary injunction against a third party service vendor who tried to fix StorageTek tape library backup systems for legitimate purchasers of the system.
How is this a DMCA violation? Well, it turns out that StorageTek allegedly uses some kind of algorithmic “key” to control access to its “Maintenance Code”, the module that allows the service tech to debug the storage system. The court found that third party service techs who used the key without StorageTek’s permission “circumvented” to gain access to the copyrighted code in violation of the DMCA, even though they had the explicit permission of the purchasers to fix their machines [emphasis mine].
What does this ruling mean? If it stands up on appeal, it means StorageTek has a monopoly on service for all of its machines. No independent vendor will be able to compete with them for service contracts because no independent vendor will be authorized to “access” the maintenance code necessary to debug the machine.
See, even if you own the box, you don’t own any digital security codes inside.
I expect to see this applied to automobiles any time now. After all, more and more of the car maintenance tracking and control is routed through chips. If GM decided to protect those chips, they could restrict access to them (and thus force maintenance on the cars) to just GM dealerships. Ford and other auto manufacturers might compete on open standards — or they might decide to do the same thing. Yippee!
(via BoingBoing)
Great laugh considering that StolenTek use to backward engineer IBM stuff all of the time.