Court Rules That Bypassing Dongle Is Not a DMCA Violation 266
tcrown007 sends along an appeals court ruling that, for once, limits the reach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's anti-circumvention clause. "MGE UPS makes UPS systems and software that are protected by hardware dongles. After the dongles expired, GE bypassed the dongles and continued to use the software. MGE sued, won, and has now lost on GE's appeal. Directly from the court's ruling (PDF): "Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision... The owner's technological measure must protect the copyrighted material against an infringement of a right that the Copyright Act protects, not from mere use or viewing.' Say what? I think I just saw a pig fly by."
it's still good! (Score:2, Funny)
That's no pig... (Score:1, Funny)
...that was a lawyer catapulted over the city walls...
Re:If this precedent holds... (Score:5, Funny)
We wont know if the pig is flying until it continuesly fails to hit the ground.
Re:If this precedent holds... (Score:3, Funny)
Even if it never hits the ground it could still be orbiting, and that's not quite the same thing as flying either.
Re:If this precedent holds... (Score:4, Funny)
Damn. If only there was some kind of slashdot user who was some kind of legal advisor from some big county in the US.