Th original thread is “Removing the DRM Protection …” but it doesn’t really matter. Colibri closed the thread saying,
“Although it’s legal to remove DRM on recordings you own for personal use, it’s illegal to do so for commercial reasons. Since this information can be used for illegal activities, I think it’s best to close this.”
The OP had a legitimate question I thought. Is this a general policy.
There are all kinds of legal things that can be used for illegal activities. Surely they wouldn’t all be closed.
IMO, most would be closed. We’ve had threads about marijuana started by posters who were in another country or one of the states where marijuana use is legal. Those threads have been closed with the explanation that ‘This board is based in the USA. Marijuana use is illegal in most of the USA’
A year or two ago, I bought a doodad (that’s the technical term) and software to convert old audio and videocassettes of family to digital files. Occasionally, the software tells me it cannot copy a videotape because ‘This tape is protected by Macrovision’. I know that for example my bar mitzvah tape is not protected by Macrovision and that I have every legal right to copy it. But if I asked on the SDMB how to defeat the Macrovision detector, that information could be used to make illegal copies of protected material.
The early days of the board were heady times for the first round of internet copyright wars. The powers that be decided that it was better to have very strict rules around such things rather than risk getting sued by a moneyed copyright holder, as was the style in the time, and those rules have stuck.
It’s pretty unlikely that, say, the RIAA is going to sue some message board that has a few posts on the topic these days, but on the other hand: lawyers are expensive, and the vast majority of discussion topics don’t run that risk at all.
Since this site is owned by a newspaper, we are particularly sensitive to copyright issues. Regarding other legal things used for illegal activities, I would have to say “It depends.”
At what point does it become ridiculous though? Hey car drivers! Guess what? If you’re driving at the speed limit and push the gas pedal just a little bit more, you can ho FASTER than the limit!
By this logic, I could not start a thread asking how to use a photocopier. Or a digital camera, for that matter.
More generally, beyond copyright issues, this board has, for its entire existence, operated in (apparently) total ignorance of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects it from liability for basically anything that its members might say in their posts.
I respectfully disagree. The primary purpose of defeating Macrovision is to make illegal copies. You can use a photocopier or a digital camera to make illegal copies of course. But that isn’t their primary function. I think a closer fit would be ‘How can I over ride the firmware on my photocopier and make copies of money?’
For you maybe. My purpose in defeating Macrovision might be to copy a portion of the film for the purposes of commentary, criticism, or transformation, all of which would fall within the “fair use” exception. Copying for the purpose of fair use is, by definition, not illegal.
Not really. Copying money is a federal crime. It’s not a copyright violation.
I imagine it’s the up to the subjective judgment of the moderators to determine whether a discussion is likely to inspire or support illegal activities. It’s not about whether the people participating in the discussion are expressing the intent to break laws, or whether it is possible for the discussion to somehow be useful to a person committing a crime. It’s whether the likelihood of such a thing seems too great.
And it would be dangerous if there was ever a bright line rule on this subject, because that might tempt people to dance around that line, or might tie the hands of moderators when something is posted that might put the SDMB and/or readers at risk but is technically allowed by the rules as written.
Does this protect them from being sued and having to incur court costs or is it just impossible for anyone to file a suit at all. My memory of the illegal stuff is it was because a court case, win or lose, would cause them to dump the message board just because of cost since they make so little money from it.
Not being a smart ass, I really don’t know how the law works in the real world.
