Comment of Marc Rassbach

From: Marc Rassbach <marc@milestonerdl.com>
To: <104study@mtia.doc.ogv>
Date: 7/26/00 1:15PM
Subject: Comment on DMCA

Sectopn I am commenting on:

The DMCA also makes it illegal for a person to manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component or part thereof which is primarily designed or produced to circumvent a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner in a work protected by copyright

This not allowing of legitimate reverese engineering will prevent products to be made that attempt to interoperate with other products.

Unless the governemts are willing to force the publishing of all API's so that products can interoperate, denying the ability to write programs such that they can interopeate.

Allowing such a clause to stand will allow a majority-market holder of a technology become the 100% leader in that market, as people wish to share information. If the conduct for the information is protected by acopywrite and not allowing reverese engineering, the software that drives the exchanbge of information will become locked up, and force citizens to embrase the copywritted conduit JUST to be able to exchange information.

And example would be Microsoft's word product having its file format for the storage of .DOC files protected by the DMCA. The result is I could not decode the files legally.

I also have concerns abotu the first sale doctrine, and how the DCMA effects this. I should have the right to sell that no-longer needed software licence.