Quote:
Originally Posted by Insanenerd
Interesting... obviously the DRM would be patented by Microsoft... But is it a patent violation to un-DRM a file...Are there any cases on this before in the US?
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First of all, as I said, I don't know what patents M$ claimed for DRM. Next, if you find them in US patent office database, you need to read them and understand what exactly parts of DRM technology are patent-protected. Only then it's possible to answer the question.
It might be, and quite likely, that unDRM method doesn't violate the patent(s). In any case, that should be decided by a legal institution, not by M$ itself. So until they got some court decision regarding this possible violation, it's all ok.
I just hope, though, that FairUse doesn't use any code from M$
That would be illegal, of course (think DivX3).
Another matter is the DMCA. Can FairUse be considered a "crack" program? If so, then hosting of it is illegal under DMCA, to my knowledge. Luckily many countries in the world can't care less about DMCA
(think Russia :P).