According to CNET:

In an apparent first, Hewlett-Packard has invoked the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to stop researchers from releasing information about software bugs. Until now, the DMCA has been used by copyright holders to prevent, for example, release of programs that allow for the circumvention of copyright protections. But H-P sent a letter to SnoSoft, a group of researchers, saying that the group faces fines of $500,000 and jail time for releasing information about a bug in an H-P Unix application. SnoSoft said that they notified H-P of the flaw early enough that a patch should have been available before public disclosure of the bug. An attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation said he expects more companies to try to use the DMCA in this way because the very broad terms and interpretation of the law allow for such prosecution. Even in circumstances unrelated to protecting copyright, he said, such actions "will trigger DMCA penalties."

Are ALL big companies stupid and evil? Sheesh.

Posted by jzawodn at July 31, 2002 06:42 PM

Reader Comments
# Derek said:

It was pointed out elsewhere that this is quite probably the real motivation behind HP's pushing Perens NOT to fight the DMCA @ OSCON. It wouldn't do very well for them to have an employee publicly fighting and ridiculing the DMCA while they as a company were wielding it as a stick.

on July 31, 2002 06:47 PM
# Masiko Joshua said:

I don't know much about the DCMA but from what I've read so far it allows developers to prevent people someone disclosing flaws in products while allowing developers to lie in perpetuity about their products
Say I'm from a company called CrimoSoft and I sell a 'new secure,revolutionary encrytion product' that does xor encryption. Does the DCMA prevent people from exposing this

on August 4, 2002 02:59 AM
# eBuster said:

I believe the DCMA is going too far and is being used to silence critics of corporations such as eBay who server a notice on my host because the site I run at ebuster,co,uk contains documents relating to wide scale fraud on eBay and as such it is important that pages that are displayed are not tampered with.

This time I had some luck since eBay picked on a fake login page I displayed after I had asked eBay on several occasions to get the page remove and from what I can understand they are upset about the eBay log at the top of the pages but it’s not like the site trying to compete against eBay and provides hundreds of links back to eBay.

The reason I present copies of pages is because eBay often remove pages where a dispute is involved so just how can anyone present case of wide scale fraud when it is becoming impossible to present evidence without have a gag order place on your host.

Yes I understand the reason for the DCMA but using it’s powers in this manor strikes at the heart of democracy and is allowing eBay to do as it pleases and in some cases it is not possible to remove the logo as some of the pages displayed on the site have been hijacked by script injection using hexadecimal code to overwrite the original page and therefore making it all but impossible to remove the eBay tm logo and no I don’t have a zillion$ to get involved with eBays lawyers but I do have freedom of speech so if that involves moving the site offshore then that is what I will do

on June 28, 2009 04:02 AM
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone. My current, past, or previous employers are not responsible for what I write here, the comments left by others, or the photos I may share. If you have questions, please contact me. Also, I am not a journalist or reporter. Don't "pitch" me.

 

Privacy: I do not share or publish the email addresses or IP addresses of anyone posting a comment here without consent. However, I do reserve the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic, or otherwise unsuitable based on my comment policy. In a few cases, I may leave spammy comments but remove any URLs they contain.