Samba & DMCA

[Steve Langasek]

On Thu, Feb 21, 2002 at 01:28:59PM -0500, Cole, Timothy D. wrote:
> It depends on how broadly you define "copy protection".  I forget the actual
> language in the DMCA right now, but with enough shuffling I think it could
> be interpreted as "intellectual property protection".  Consult a lawyer if
> you really want to know. :P

Speculation among friends of mine who know Battle.Net is that this has 
to do with cd keys: because the bnetd server ignores cd keys completely, 
it effectively prevents Blizzard from 'crippling' pirated copies of 
games which wouldn't work against their official Battle.Net server.  
Battle.Net throws out cd keys as invalid if they are seen coming from 
more than one client simultaneously, but bnetd takes this control away 
from Blizzard by letting anyone run their own Internet game server.

This is all speculation, and my non-lawyerly opinion is that Blizzard 
would lose if the defendants had the money to mount a challenge -- but 
they don't, which is precisely why the DMCA is a problem.

Steve Langasek
postmodern programmer

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David Brodbeck [mailto:DavidB at mail.interclean.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 12:40
> > To: Cole, Timothy D.
> > Cc: 'samba-technical at samba.org'
> > Subject: RE: Samba & DMCA
> > 
> > 
> > Have they actually won the case?  If that's true, it may not 
> > hold up in
> > court.
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Cole, Timothy D. [mailto:timothy_d_cole at md.northgrum.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 12:36 PM
> > To: 'David Brodbeck'; samba-technical at samba.org
> > Subject: RE: Samba & DMCA
> > 
> > 
> > As far as I know there isn't anything in bnet that does 
> > either.  Not that it
> > stopped Blizzard...
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: David Brodbeck [mailto:DavidB at mail.interclean.com]
> > > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 11:47
> > > To: samba-technical at samba.org
> > > Subject: RE: Samba & DMCA
> > > 
> > > 
> > > The DMCA covers software that provides a copy protection 
> > > function.  There's
> > > (currently) nothing in SMB that does this.
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Maksim Yakubenko [mailto:yak at jet.msk.su]
> > > Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2002 9:41 AM
> > > To: samba-technical at samba.org
> > > Subject: Re: Samba & DMCA
> > > 
> > > 
> > > >         2) establishing  or interpreting portions of
> > > >            the protocol as "anti-circumvention"
> > > >            measures, and
> > > 
> > > I don't really understand this. That does this mean?
> > > 
> > 
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