Holiday Cheer from the DMCA (Score 1)

Happy Holidays to all; The DMCA was, IMHO, designed to protect the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) of the RIAA. Basically, it makes it illegal to crack music encoded using the SDMI or other types of protection, such as digital watermarks. The SDMI, promised for Christmas '98, remains vapourware, but the law is there. The prohibition on cracking protected music starts October 28, 2000. However, starting Oct 28, 1998, the distribution of CODE that violates a "technological protection measure" is outlawed. (Yes, that's right - regardless of the merits of this case, /. people can USE these products legally at the present!) Futher, the DCMA only prohibits the cracking of access measures, not copy protection. The interoperability loophole is fairly narrow, and probably won't help Streambox much. However, the law seems clear (although I am not a lawyer) : The DMCA prohibits the sale of code that is PRIMARILY intended to circumvent protection against unauthorized access (or that is marketed as such). It does NOT prohibit measures to circumvent copy protection per se. It seems to me that Real has a tough road to hoe : 1.) They would have to show that their format is used to prevent unauthorized access AND 2.) They would have to show that Streambox is PRIMARILY intended to get around that prevention, or is marketed as such. Now, I am a MP3 man myself, but I am not aware of any such access limits in the REAL format. Can't anyone get software that plays this ? Can't you download the Real software itself for free ? And use it for free ? Then how can Real show # 1 ? Even if Real could show that you cannot copy the Real format (is this really true???), that doesn't seem to be enough - it's access protection that is limited. Even so, if Real proves # 1, given the wide range of uses of Streambox, and its similarity to other products, how can they show # 2 ? I just don't see how the Real suit has much merit, unless Streambox was VERY stupid in what they said in their advertising.