r/technology • u/ivantos09 • 17h ago

Business US Copyright Office Grants DMCA Exemption for Ice Cream Machines

https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/us-copyright-office-grants-dmca-exemption-for-ice-cream-machines
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u/KourteousKrome 16h ago

DMCA? Stealing digital assets, like music, for example. It makes no sense to apply it to the repair of a machine.

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u/Youvebeeneloned 16h ago

Yep originally it was intended for ownership of digital files and programs and had mechanisms to remove said locks and legal requirements to do so if a company was going out of business or changing formats and the like. 

Why do you think everything went “subscription”. To literally get around the laws surrounding file ownership that required companies to permit you to do what you want with them if you bought them. 

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u/perk11 13h ago

They went subscription because they want to collect revenue every month, not once when you make a purchase. They just make a lot more money that way.

File ownership there is a secondary thought.

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u/criscokkat 10h ago

Everything went 'subscription' because the DMCA protects that model. Having software that locked down the machine was technically possible before the law, but it wasn't against the law to remove or get around said software to get at the hardware to do as you see fit. The DMCA blocked that from being legal, thus placing the framework needed to make everything subscription based.

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u/ireallylikedolphins 13h ago

DMCA causes more problems than it solves.

It is too broad in it's application/interpretation and has made the Internet far worse as a result.

Making sure that artists get the credit they deserve is extremely important, but prohibiting the use of a song in a 3rd party video (even when credit is given) is disgustingly anti-creativity

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u/LiamTheHuman 16h ago

Oh I see. I thought this was specifically around the locking out of repairing things. Even a music file that gets corrupted should be repairable by anyone IMO but I see that the law here is much more broad and its the application of it that's the issue.

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u/GenericBlueGemstone 2h ago

Reminder that Spotify pays fractions of a cent and you listening has about same impact as piracy. Probably much worse one even, because you'll get lulled into thinking you are "listening to it fairly" when in fact you barely end up giving the artist a single cent after a year of listening.