EFF Takes On Apple Over DMCA Takedown Notice
by Kristin Shoemaker - Apr. 28, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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I can't help, when hearing more of the details about the EFF and OdioWorks joint lawsuit against Apple, thinking that the whole situation is just broken from any angle. The DMCA isn't without issue and the fact that it was applied to an online discussion about reverse engineering possibilities is a disturbing first. Even more backwards is the idea that a company producing wildly popular devices that are unsupported on an operating platform that's attracting an increasing number of tech- and gadget-happy people would not expect (or tolerate to some degree) discussion about reverse engineering.
Let's put the legal issues aside for a moment -- or the idea that any copy protection systems were going to be stripped and copyright laws would be violated left and right. Wouldn't having a device your company produces but will not (or can not) support on some platforms reverse engineered so that it is able to work on (and with) a larger pool of software going to make your device more desirable?
iTunes doesn't work with Linux, and I'm betting many of the open source developers working on reverse engineering the new generation of iPhone/iPod Touch devices don't use it on the machines they have that do support it. I'm not sure significant revenue would be lost there from reverse engineering -- if so, I'd imagine that Apple would be at least considering a Linux-version of iTunes that sells its DRM-free media. At this point, at its most innocent, it seems that these developers just wanted their devices to work better on their systems. If Apple doesn't have the resources (in cash, developers, or interest) to support its devices on any given system -- be it Linux or OS/2 -- and there's enough of a demand that developers are coming together to try to make that happen on their own, it might be a good idea to let them.
It's naive of me, I know. I do have ulterior motives when I say Apple should let them hack away at homebrew support -- and maybe even make cursory efforts to help with their endeavors. Not only would this make the devices functional (and by default more appealing) for more people, it would give Apple some voice in how this happens. Sure, it's not quite that easy -- there are pages of fine print, and there are points that would need to be addressed and clarified between the developers, Apple, and Apple's partners and suppliers. But going this route is just as likely to give Apple better control over where its products go and how they're used than its current path.
There are, indeed, many things wrong with this picture. If going completely open source isn't the right choice for Apple, that's within reason -- but issuing take down notices citing DMCA violations over what was still evidently a theoretical discussion probably isn't the right decision either.
