Does the US federal government have the right to hack and pirate software of US companies? Apparently the answer is yes. Air Force cracks software, carpet bombs DMCA. You have to read this article, it's not long. The backstory is amazing, "Showing the sort of personal initiative that only gets people into trouble"... "Davenport responded by selling his code to Blueport, which attempted to negotiate a license with the Air Force, which responded by hiring a company to hack the compiled version by deleting the code that enforced the expiration date."
Furthermore, it seems "The United States, as [a] sovereign, 'is immune from suit save as it consents to be sued . . . and the terms of its consent to be sued in any court define that court’s jurisdiction to entertain the suit.'" So, since The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) doesn't state an exception, so no one can sue the US government if they violate it.
I sent this article to my congressman. Copyright is broken, can we please fix it?
1 comment:
I'm not a layer, but this case may not be the best poster child for the cause. The fact that he used his position (and presumably inside understanding of the problem) to get his software in use in the first place raises serious ethitcal issues and would seem to violate "conflict of interest" policies.
If it went the other way, and this guy made money from software he developed at least partly on the job, people would scream that the government is wasting money by sponsoring private projects without using the proper channels.
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