DMCA Infringement By Deleting Files On Your Computer?
Here’s yet another example of why room temperature IQ politicians have no business prostituting themselves for campaign contributions from RIAA, MPAA, and others in the entertainment industry.
An Internet entrepreneur, John Stottlemire, found a way to delete certain files and registry keys on one’s computer so that multiple copies of coupons could be printed from coupons.com (no hyperlink provided because they don’t deserve it after this lawsuit).
Although Stottlemire claims that what he’s done involves no hacking or encryption issues, just file deletion that enables multiple coupons, he’s being sued for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Think about it…The crux of the case is that he’s enabling people to delete files on their computers. If the result of that is undesired by coupons.com, the common sense response is for that company is to create a better coupon distribution system instead of attacking the guy who revealed the flaw in their business model.
The DMCA was never intended to prevent you from deleting files on your hard drive. Yet this is yet another case of intellectual property (IP) law run amuck because it can’t keep pace with technology.
About the Author
With an advanced international law degree from Georgetown University and more than 15 years of real world legal experience, Attorney Mike Young is President of the Internet Ethics Council and creator of Website Legal Forms Generator software. He helps entrepreneurs protect and grow their businesses online.
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I don’t think it’s limited to deleting files or reg keys. It’s about hacking the software installer to identify & delete the controls that are part of the program? Commercially offering the printed coupons on his site? Attempting to force a consulting fee (vs employment) from Coupons Inc? Using EDI databases likely not in the public domain to decode coupons? His wife bragging on the site about using coupons fraudulently at Walmart’s USCANs?
Google a bit & learn about this guy hacking flightsim programs & then faking his death when there were issues.
Look at the coldfusion technical forum where members were indirectly led to believe he was http://www.dealideal.com when he offered $50 PayPal for help scripting a login to their user contribution (not EDI) based decoder after being banned from there & returning with different IP addresses.
What is terrible is the Wired & the ABC & other news stories leading people to believe it’s just about deleting files & reg keys, & then fearing that?
Did the defendant first have an opportunity to cease & decist?
If what dealidealmember states in the preceding comment is true, there are plenty of avenues under existing fraud and deceptive trade practices laws to nail Stottlemire. My beef is with the DMCA…a fundamentally flawed law that’s being used far beyond the scope of what it was intended even by the politicians who passed it after receiving monetary encouragement from the entertainment industry to do so. To the extent the DMCA is being used to go after file and registry key deletion, that’s absurd. As for the rest, if proven, throw him to the lions.