Provisions of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) can seem draconian but they have a legitimate role, if we accept that copyright is worth protecting. Copyright opponents are often guilty of selective presentation when discussing the DMCA. The need for backup copies is one example, and the other is the arrest of the Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov, which I return to later.
Lessig argues that the ease of illegal copying militates against treating it as a crime, but this is not consistent with other areas of law. For example, we don't decriminalise murder just because handguns make murder easy.
Similarly, open sourcer Russell attempts to justify the deliberate breaking of copyright protections on the grounds that prevention means restraining a programmer from operating his own software. (Hansard, 2004a: 50) This is a weak argument. Ownership of a tool used to carry out a crime does not excuse the crime. For example, ownership of a screwdriver does not excuse the picking of locks.
Sklyarov case not what it seems
Copyright opponents represent Sklyarov as an innocent programmer who had simply created software to let blind people hear electronic books published in Adobe's e-book format. (Hansard, 2004a: 52)
The reality is rather different. Sklyarov's program destroyed the IP protections of Adobe electronic books, which publishers had been relying on as a way to safely provide their work on the internet. It was not some innocent program to help the blind. Sklyarov's employer, ElcomSoft, had been selling the program for profit and had ignored letters from Adobe asking it to refrain. It was in that context that the US government arrested Sklyarov when he travelled to the US. (Adobe, 2004)
Take-down provisions
We would not want take-down provisions used to censor material, as has occurred in the US. However they are a useful way that copyright owners can quickly enforce their rights. To require copyright owners to take court action, as proposed by the EFA's Coroneos, imposes excessive burdens on copyright owners. Balance is not simply a matter of considering the inconvenience caused to ISP's.
Need for inter-operability and error correction is overstated
The alleged need to circumvent protection devices to make programs inter-operable or to correct errors is generally overstated for ideological reasons, and also as part of competitive marketing strategies by multinational competitors of Microsoft.
The reality is that popular software products are forced by the market to be able to read and operate with other popular data formats. For example, businesses with old Word Perfect or Lotus files can continue to read them with Microsoft Word. Old Word files can be read with free viewers provided by Microsoft, if organisations decide not to buy Microsoft products.
For technical or important data, continued access is a matter of professional data management, rather than practices of software providers. Such data is normally stored in SQL databases or in formats accessible to numerous applications and custom programs. Similar trends exist in specialised fields such as GIS, where data formats tend to converge towards the most useful industry formats, which are then supported by all popular software products. Accordingly, I argue that the market, and professional management, address the issue of data being compatible, and it is addressed well enough not to require exceptions to copyright protections.
Legitimate reasons to hinder interoperability
There are also some strong reasons why software developers need to stop unauthorised people from interrogating connection protocols. In the case of online games, developers face an increasing need to stop cheating, which requires them to lock casual users out of the protocol stream.
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"Open Source is bad for Australia" is such a blanket statement that I would have to disagree.
The author makes valid points about GPL on occasions hindering, rather than enhancing business, but GPL is not the only Open Source model. GPL is often used with the attitude "I am not making any money out of publishing this code, so why should anyone else." Unfortunately, R&D investment can not be warranted "commercially" on a GPL system, because the entity spending the money does not get any benefit (except knowing they might make the world a better place).
There are also instances where Open Source would be detrimental to commercial interests in Australia. But Open Source often brings benefits, which is why I disagree. One of the problems with proprietary source code is that if the particular vendor goes bankrupt, or a relationship sours with a vendor, your data is effectively held hostage (Most of the time, you can not simply port to another vendor's package). Whilst open source doesn't guarentee flexibility (there may be binding contracts even in open source), in my view you are certainly more secure.
Secondly, many open source products are free. This is not co-incidental, but a consequence of GPL and alike. In fact, this is one of the factors hinted at in the article. I would like to suggest that Open Source classes, databases, languages, APIs and alike can significantly reduce development time. Most open source products have public documentation, so they don't need to be re-documented. Furthermore, not having to pay license fees can assist a software company to be more profitable.
Thirdly, on following on from point two, cheaper development costs inevitably lead to more competitive markets and cheaper prices to the end user. This makes software more accessable to Australians.