After getting a petition passed (and rather favorably answered) to "make unlocking cell phones legal," 27 year old Sina Khanifar has teamed up with digital rights advocates and other organizations to go one step further and "fix the DMCA."
The FixTheDMCA campaign, backed by organizations including the EFF, Y Combinator, reddit, mozilla, and saurik, is attempting to have section 1201 ("The Anti-Circumvention Provision") of the DMCA repealed. They note effects such as the clear and permanent legality of:
- Unlocking cell phones
- Jailbreaking phones, tablets, and game consoles
- Screen reading software for the blind
- Backing up DVDs
Khanifar is a long-time unlocking champion, getting his early experience running a Motorola unlocking service (which we actually worked with him in regards to on our old site TheMotoGuide.com, and ModMyMoto.com). At that time, Motorola had approached him stating his actions were illegal, but after receiving only minor legal pressure back from Sina and help, Motorola backed down.
While speaking about the campaign with Khanifar, he stated:
I'm really glad we made it to the number of signatures needed and got such a great response from the White House. But I'm concerned politicians will fix unlocking without dealing with the root cause of the problem, which is the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions. I'm hoping FixTheDMCA will help move the conversation to the larger issues, and precipitate a bigger amendment to section 1201 that'll fix a lot of the parts of the DMCA we tinkerers have been complaining about since the bill was passed.
It's interesting to note, while most major media outlets like to say things which didn't get exempted were "declared illegal," that is not actually true at all. "Not declared exempt" is quite different from "was explicitly declared illegal."
In 2009 Fred von Lohmann of the EFF had this to say about Apple's "jailbreaking should be illegal" claims, and his words ring just as true today:
One need only transpose Apple's arguments to the world of automobiles to recognize their absurdity. Sure, GM might tell us that, for our own safety, all servicing should be done by an authorized GM dealer using only genuine GM parts. Toyota might say that swapping your engine could reduce the reliability of your car. And Mazda could say that those who throw a supercharger on their Miatas frequently exceed the legal speed limit.
But we'd never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages. After all, the culture of tinkering (or hacking, if you prefer) is an important part of our innovation economy.
But we'd never accept this corporate paternalism as a justification for welding every car hood shut and imposing legal liability on car buffs tinkering in their garages. After all, the culture of tinkering (or hacking, if you prefer) is an important part of our innovation economy.
ModMyi.com fully supports the efforts of FixTheDMCA.org - our community's name speaks to our tinkerer mindset; we love modifying our gear. Modifying, hacking, customizing - however you term it, the practice makes something we already love even more intensely ours. It's an approach which has driven innovation for ages.
Source: FixTheDMCA.org
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