[d@DCC] Tied selling and DVD players

[Russell McOrmond]

  I am sending this to have it in the archives.  I believe it contains a
very interesting take and US legal precedent relevant to the
anti-competitive nature of DRM.

-- 
 Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/> 
 Happy Hacking, Eh!    http://www.digital-copyright.ca/blog/2 (My BLOG)
 Sign the Petition Users' Rights! http://digital-copyright.ca/petition/

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 15:00:40 -0800
From: Chris Brand <Chris_Brand  -at- spectrumsignal.com>
To: "Russell McOrmond (E-mail)" <russell -at- flora.ca>
Subject: Tied selling and DVD players

Hi Russell,

I was reading a groklaw article at 
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20041230173714712 ,
which in turn cites 
http://www.hewm.com/use/articleDetails.asp?articleID=798 ,
which says this :

    As early as 1917, for example, the Supreme Court addressed the 
    problem of patent misuse when movie projector companies attempted 
    to 'tie' their films to their projectors unlawfully, forcing 
    projector buyers to purchase the companies' films as well. See 
    Motion Picture Patents Co. v. Universal Film Mfg., 243 U.S. 502 
    (1917).

That sounds to me remarkably similar to the DVD situation 
today, except that today they force you to buy their player 
to play their disk, and it's a conglomerate rather than a 
single company that's at fault.

Anyway, just thought you may find it useful to follow that up.

Chris Brand
Petition for Users' Rights under Copyright - <http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition>