Demon & DeCSS

[Owen Blacker]

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Just to clarify, I agree with absolutely everything you've said. 
(Or, more succinctly, "<AOL />"  :o)


O x
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Owen Blacker
Senior Internet Developer and InfoSec Consultant, pres.co
!!!  New PGP keys -- see http://www.owens-place.org.uk/pgp.html  !!!
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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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> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Howe [mailto:DHowe@Hawkswing.demon.co.uk]
> Sent: Friday, September 22, 2000 11:57 AM
> To: ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Demon & DeCSS
> 
> 
> Owen Blacker <owen.blacker@pres.co.uk> wrote:
> > 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)
> It's the "company's best interest" bit we are debating here - It is
> certainly in the company's best interest to prevent itself being
> sued. however, the *easiest* way to do this is to ban its users
> from doing anything at all - no email in or out, no usenet, no web 
> browsing. There
> *has* to be a dividing line between doing everything possible 
> to prevent the
> remotest possibility of a lawsuit, and allowing your customers to
> do whatever they like with no accountability - but in this case 
> the dividing
> line is too far on the backside-covering side of the chart.  
> They are *paid*
> to give legal advice on what is or isn't a risk to Demon's 
> finances before
> they do things that could cause their customers to leave in 
> flocks. This is
> obviously (to us, possibly not to them) a case where an american
> trade pressure group are quoting american rulings to a british 
> company; correct
> procedure would be to send back the "does this apply outside 
> of america"
> letter and receive a response BEFORE you start threatening 
> your customers,
> on which your income depends. If Demon's lawyers can't keep 
> up with global
> events like DeCSS, and can't decide to what extent the American
> Disney Protection Laws apply in england, it may be time for them to
> find a new set
> of lawyers.
> 
> 
> 
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