{"id":3440,"date":"2002-11-21T07:12:50","date_gmt":"2002-11-21T12:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3440"},"modified":"2002-11-21T07:12:50","modified_gmt":"2002-11-21T12:12:50","slug":"we_want_informa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/21\/we_want_informa.html","title":{"rendered":"We want … information!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The DMCA was intended to provide stronger copyright protection for digitized data. Some folks, though, are calling it the McGyver of IP law: whatever you want to call copyrighted material suddenly becomes something you can use the DMCA, and its draconian tools, to protect.<\/p>\n

So, for example, someone who gets a advanced sales at Wal-Mart and Best Buy, and publishes them on-line is now a target for DMCA enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After receiving legal threats from Best Buy, Staples, Target and Wal-Mart, FatWallet removed several user postings in its Hot Deals section.
\nScooping sales circulars by several days, the postings, apparently from site users who had access to proprietary sales information, included lists of products, along with reduced prices, that will go on sale Nov. 29 — the day known as “Black Friday” for U.S. retailers because it kicks off the holiday buying season.
\n[…] “We don’t think sales prices can be copyrighted, or that the DMCA was meant for this type of thing,” said Storm. “But it would cost us a heck of a lot of money to be right.” He added that he decided to comply with the retailers’ requests “as a business decision.” <\/p>\n

That’s right. It’s not a trade secrets violation, which is what it would have been considered a few short years ago. Now it’s a copyright violation. And since the DMCA uses a shoot-first-ask-questions-later club to let plaintiffs demand the material be taken down immediately, or otherwise insist an ISP shut down the site, it’s an easy way for companies to wield an incredible amount of power.<\/p>\n

To make it even more interesting, it isn’t the owner of the site that has to be the person putting the data up. In FatWallet’s case, it’s site visitors\/contribotors posting the price data there.<\/p>\n

But think about it. These companies are claiming that price information is now copyrighted. Does that mean that if I mention that I saw a DVD at Best Buy for $18, but instead bought it at Amazon for $15, that Best Buy can use the DMCA to shut me down?<\/p>\n

Sure looks that way to me. Joy.<\/p>\n

(via BoingBoing<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The DMCA was intended to provide stronger copyright protection for digitized data. Some folks, though, are calling it the McGyver of IP law: whatever you want to call copyrighted material…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7487,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/22\/ink_inc_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":0},"title":"Ink, Inc.","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Feb-05 2:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An appeals court has dealt another blow to Lexmark's use of the DMCA to keep someone else from selling cheap, compatible inkjet cartridges. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5839,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/12\/all_your_tape_d.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":1},"title":"All your tape drive are belong to us","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 12-Jul-04 6:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"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...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27802,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/07\/add-one-more-area-of-abuse-for-the-dmca.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":2},"title":"Add one more area of abuse for the DMCA","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 7-May-12 1:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Digital Milennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was one of the opening salvos in the IP wars online. While it did establish safe harbor protection for online providers, it also allowed itself to be used in a variety of abusive ways.Of particular note this campaign season -- building on 2008 --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2028,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/24\/more_googlescie.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":3},"title":"More Google\/Scientology\/DMCA stuff","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 24-Mar-02 7:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Xenu.net home page is back up on Google. Turns out it didn't have any copyrighted material on it, and so was not vulnerable to attack under the DMCA. Not...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5082,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/05\/chip_absolute_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":4},"title":"Chip Absolute Control","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Nov-03 9:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Copyright Office has quashed Lexmark's claim that the DMCA gives it a monopoly on printer cartridges for its printers because of the microchip it's so conveniently placed on them....","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":247,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/20\/a_treaty_they_l.html","url_meta":{"origin":3440,"position":5},"title":"A treaty they like","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-May-03 10:20am","format":false,"excerpt":"Charming. While the Bush Administration is willing to fudge or fail to push for confirmation or withdraw from international treaties they find objectionable, they apparently don't have any problem with...","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}