Demon & DeCSS

[Owen Blacker]

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> >I know Demon got a raw deal in the Godfrey case, but there 
> is no reason for
> >them to start hassling their customers at the behest of the 
> MPAA. It maybe a
> >botty covering exercise, but demon really should have taken 
> some advice
> >before knee jerking.
> 
>  But then, Demon are well-known for having a silly legal 
> department, as
> seen in the Godfrey case. Has David Swarbrick's posting access been
> reconnected yet ?

To be fair to Demon, their legal department's responsibility must
surely be to prevent Thus plc from being sued, in any jurisdiction. 
They may have made (and possibly still make, as a non-subscriber to
Demon, I don't know) some poor judgments in the past, but that
doesn't mean that they're all out to stomp all over free expression
/per se/...   :o)

I wouldn't say their Legal Dept is necessarily "silly", just trying
to act in the company's best interest, which is surely their
contractual duty as employees of Thus plc.  I may not like the fact
that they threaten to pull a site after receiving somewhat dubious
claims from the MPAA, but surely it's the MPAA's bad here.  Demon's
actions are understandable, even if perhaps not what we would like
them to be.  Any company's Legal dept exists in the main to cover the
company's arse!   :o)


O x
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Owen Blacker
Senior Internet Developer and InfoSec Consultant, pres.co
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DISCLAIMER: These views are mine own and do not represent those of
any other organisation I may seem to represent including, but not
limited to, pres.co, Primecom or any of their clients.
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