If you actually read 12USC1201, you'd know that it is illegal to sell a VCR that does not respect the macrovision flag. In the exact same way, there are flags in RTMP media that control access to the underlying content. rtmpDump circumvents those flags.
Ah yes this is true and I'd forgotten that, but it was still true for broadcast tv and what is a stream of data if not a broadcast?
[...] I feel like it's quite proper for me to say "look but don't copy" -- same for a draft of a novel I'm writing or a short piece of music I've composed. [...] it seems to me quite obvious that you have no right to require that they not attach conditions to those bytes. This reasoning is known in legal circles as a maiore ad minus -- from the stronger unto the weaker. [...]
And it seems fair to ask look but don't copy, except all a computer does is copy bits all day from one place to another, its just what they do. But I do believe that those systems currently send those bytes without any requirement on my end - which is what I was getting at. There may be an implied requirement but there is not an explicit one that I can see - no login required for Hulu or Youtube content. So while you're right there may be a condition on those bytes, but to my eye the condition seems to be an internet connection. To which you'll say, but the video has a format and that format has a meaning and so we must re-implement macro-vission for the digital age!
And to that I say NO - don't go back to the bad old days. I've got more interesting things to do with that data which I shouldn't have to purchase it 12 times because you can't see past your nose.
Is the DMCA unconstitutional because it violates a particular provision of the Constitution or just because it's atrocious? People don't like to hear this from lawyers, but the fact is that the Constitution allows many shitty things (it is, after all, manifestly imperfect).
You've got a leg up on me here because I personally avoid this crap like the plague usually... But... How about this, the constitution requires that copyright be for a *limited* amount of time, I could argue they are preventing this. Though thats a weak argument I'm out of time at work and my internet is busted at home thanks to Comcast's crappy service.
Maybe it is a classic is/ought problem as you put it, but my comment wasn't directed at your factual grandparent comment. A discussion can have more then just fact but also opinions.
In your post you said: this is an unsettled area of law. Since it would be a rather boring discussion without opinion (especially here) I think we can move passed that point eh? Now onto something more interesting...
I disagree very strenuously with the notion that this point alone proves that consumers ought to be able copy content marked 'display only'
To which I would beg the question, why not? The makers of rtmpDump don't seem any different then those of the vcr or camera to me. I don't believe there is any signed agreement by the site and the user to only use the Adobe certified player software and so long as they send the bytes to me they can have no complaint on how I use (display) those bits on my end (as a user). Now with the advent of the DMCA - an atrocious law that should be declared in part or whole as unconstitutional - there is a legal ground for attacking the neo-vcr and to that I say bullocks. With no contractual agreement between any of the parties why the fed. gov. need to get involved with everything? I'm sure the ass hats would like to come after me for my DTV capture devices too, bugger them. I shouldn't even have to utter the words fair use. I welcome the diamond age.
They way you describe it it really sounds like the DMCA can be used to create an Evil Bit standard backed by the full power of legislature...
That is exactly what the DMCA is for, the creation of the evil bit - see HDTV's magic flag bullshit, or in this case, a stream flag or whatever. Its all really stupid because ultimately displayable content is copyable and thats what they refuse to realize.
I think there's a world market for about five computers. -- attr. Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board, IBM), 1943