"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Andy Dingley wrote:

On 25 Jul, 16:30, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
I Googled for something and at the bottom of the page was:

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this
page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the
removal(s) at ChillingEffects.org.

DMCA is a horribly blunt pro-forma that allows anyone in the USA who
understands it to send threatening-looking "Cease & Desist" notices to
anyone they feel like, without any real need for suppoorting evidence
or legal cause. They're easy to defend against (they fall apart in
court), but you have to go to court to do so. Overall it's a typical
knee-jerk reaction (like the UK dangerous dogs laws) with an
additional twist of the US Mouse-protection laws that favour the well-
heeled or corporations over citizens. Great way to stifle grass-roots
protest.

ChillingEffects.org are a bunch of the good guys (I think Lessig is in
there somewhere) who are trying to highlight the issue and its abuses.

Some of the DMCA kerfuffle is related to the LOCATS macro intaweb meme
(look it up on wikipedia, it's all there). It's probably at its
funniest with the gothmacros community on Livejournal. _If_ your taste
in clothing is questionable, and your waistline is more of an equator,
and the "goth fashion" community you read and post to is closely
associated with a particularly barbed "I HAZ A BUKKIT" community full
of bitchy Photoshoppers, then it may not be the wisest thing to upload
photos of yourself in full costume to a community where there's an
implicit re-use licence on the content uploaded....

If you did all of that, and you're American, then you can have endless
fun by trying to throw the DMCA around at the people who ripped you
(and your bukkit) to shreds. If these people are Goths (which largely
means over-educated, under-worked Libertarian Unix admins) then expect
fireworks in return.


So now you know! I bet Mary wishes she'd never asked! g

Well, I do - in a way - but isn't it good to see people making fools of
themselves!

I'm always amazed at factories dedicated to making strange widgets most
people have never heard of, this is the internet equivalent I suppose.

Thanks to everyone,

Mary