It's not unusual for my readers to have some strong things to say about DRM, product activation and the like. But one reaction to my column last week on Roxio's product activation was particularly remarkable, the more so because it came from the president of a software company.
"We are a small company which does a lot of customized software, so there is a difference there between us and the Microsofts, et. al. of the world," the reader wrote. "However, our philosophies cannot be too dissimilar, since we all make our money off our software."
"All that said, I view copy protection as an absolute immoral, illegal, and unconstitutional intrusion of individual rights," the reader wrote. "I have gotten fed up with companies and people in general treating everyone like a criminal until they prove otherwise. I will not allow anyone at my company to even suggest a copy protection scheme, because I believe in going after the offenders, and not everyone else."
Unconstitutional intrusion? "Absolutely" the reader wrote, citing the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. "It is my belief that these activation schemes are essentially a search as it keeps track of the hardware in the system. It may be general information, but still nonetheless a search. Secondly, when the software is disabled as a result of a hardware change, again, this is a search, but also a seizure. I understand all too well that software is licensed, and title and copyright is retained with the authoring entity; however, the price paid for the software is essentially a rental price. How often in this country can a person be thrown out of their residence without the owner going to court first? It just doesn't happen."
The reader also cited the Fifth Amendment and its provision that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. "Disabling software when the person has paid the entity's price for it constitutes the person being deprived of liberty and property without due process," he wrote. "I have written and continue to write Senators, Congressmen, etc. to try to get some action on this, but the issue is just simply not big enough or hot enough to get Congress to move on."
Them's fighting words, I do believe. Write me at Foster@gripe2ed.com and tell me which side of the fight you're on.
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12:50:53 AM 
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