#digitalmillenniumcopyrightact — Public Fediverse posts

But *zero* app users have installed ad-blockers, because reverse-engineering an app requires that you bypass its encryption, triggering liability under #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct. This law provides for a $500,000 fine and a 5-year prison sentence for "circumvention" of access controls:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

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This means that when a vendor end-of-lifes a gadget, no one can make an alternative OS for it, so off the landfill it goes.

It doesn't help that UEFI - and other trusted computing modules - are covered by #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA), which makes it a felony to publish information that can bypass or weaken the system.

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But once Google seized the majority of the mobile market, it was able to funnel users into apps, and reverse-engineering an app is a felony (felony contempt of business-model) under #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to install an ad-blocker.

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Trafficking in tools to break a digital lock is a felony under #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct, carrying a 5-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.

In other words, it's not just that tech isn't regulated, allowing for endless twiddling against your privacy, consumer rights and labor rights. It's that tech is *badly* regulated, to permit unlimited twiddling by tech companies to take away your rightsand to prohibit any twiddling by you to take them back.

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Shredding parts and cooking up bogus trademark claims is just for starters, though. For Apple, the true anti-repair innovation comes from the most pernicious US tech law: #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA).

#DMCA1201 is an #AntiCircumvention law. It bans the distribution of any tool that bypasses "an effective means of access control."

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There are only laws, like the #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct, that make writing and distributing those programs a felony punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine (for a first offense).

That is to say, the War On General Purpose Computing is only incidentally a *technical* fight: it is primarily a *legal* fight.

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Apple uses #DRM to lock people into using its #AppStore, threatening anyone who reverse-engineers its devices to add competing stores with 5 year prison sentences under #Section1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA).

Google's #Android *does* have a facility for "side-loading" apps that aren't in its app store, but the company uses a web of commercial requirements and technological tricks to prevent a competitor from emerging:

https://theplatformlaw.blog/2023/05/24/why-the-proposed-commitments-offered-by-google-to-the-uk-competition-authority-regarding-in-app-purchases-are-wrong-and-will-make-the-situation-of-app-developers-worse/

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With digital items, Amazon has a *double* lock-in, thanks to #DigitalRightsManagement (#DRM). Under #Section1201 of 1998's #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA), it's a felony to provide someone with a tool to remove DRM, *even if no one ever uses that tool to infringe copyright*. That means that if Amazon sells you one of my books wrapped in its DRM, you can't play it unless you use an Amazon-authorized player.

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Like all DRM, VIN locks are covered by Section 1201 of the #DigitalMillenniumCopyrightAct (#DMCA), a 1998 law that criminalizes distributing tools to bypass "access controls," even if you do so for a lawful purpose (say, to fix your own tractor using a part you paid for). Violations of #DMCA1201 carry a penalty of 5 years in prison and a $500k fine - for a first offense.

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