Status of Cryptography Research in implementation of the EUCD

[Ken Brown]

Julian T J Midgley wrote:

> If I purchase an engine from you, and take it apart to
> determine how it works, you cannot prosecute me for the act of doing so;

The logical progression of the new trend in lawmaking is that this will
have to change.

All over Europe and North America the trend is to allow producers to
control how the things they produce are used. The most egregious
examples are probably not so much DRM as the "grey market" rules, which
our own courts are happy to enforce.  Or perhaps the idea that if
someone develops a new variety of crop plant, and some of their plants
mate with some of your plants so that some of the seeds in your crop
include genes from theirs, then you aren't allowed to plant seeds from
your own crop. 

From a /lawyers/ point of view all these things are quite distinct. But
for the rest of us they add up to the same thing - producers retain
control over the use of the goods they produce after they sell them. Its
not really about "rights" its about politics - who has the most power? 
The law, the market, democracy, are all different ways of exercising
political power.