Comment How is a serial cable in the Dreamcast different (Score 2, Insightful) 445
... from one in a PC? What I mean is, a serial cable is just a way to interface with a port under a certain specification (in this case a serial protocol). The fact that the Dreamcast has a serial connector indicates that its use is legal.
Why will anybody put a connector that you are NOT supposed to use??!! So now using the serial cable is illegal... does this make the use of the parallel port in my PC illegal? (If so, I am going to jail because I can't remember how many times I have used it ;)
Now seriously, the custom office does NOT know how the serial cable is going to be used, so they assumed that it was going to be used the "wrong" way. In that case very soon, custom should stop anybody ordering bricks from China (or somewhere else, for that matter), because killing people is illegal in the USA, and bricks can be used to kill people...
It is not just the DMCA: it is the whole idea, very popular these days in political talk, that if something can be used for harmful purposes, it needs to be banned inmediately because it will be used in that manner.
Why will anybody put a connector that you are NOT supposed to use??!! So now using the serial cable is illegal... does this make the use of the parallel port in my PC illegal? (If so, I am going to jail because I can't remember how many times I have used it
Now seriously, the custom office does NOT know how the serial cable is going to be used, so they assumed that it was going to be used the "wrong" way. In that case very soon, custom should stop anybody ordering bricks from China (or somewhere else, for that matter), because killing people is illegal in the USA, and bricks can be used to kill people...
It is not just the DMCA: it is the whole idea, very popular these days in political talk, that if something can be used for harmful purposes, it needs to be banned inmediately because it will be used in that manner.
