Digital locks[DLs] are ‘virtual fences’ put around digital content.1 An example is a password authorizing the access to an online music store such as iTunes. The government, through legislation, has the…
Category: Digital Locks
The Evolving Treatment of Digital Locks
Forget superheroes and cartoon plumbers; the gaming public can now play Charles Darwin. In Spore, the long-awaited new game from the creator of The Sims, players can help a race…
The Commodification of Intellectual Property, and You!
I recently attended a lecture by professor Bruce Ziff, of the University of Alberta Law School, where he described what he termed as his only original academic idea. He posited…
Tipping the Scale Too Far: User Versus Owner Rights in the iPhone Debate
Like many cell phone customers, you might be irritated that your service provider locks you in. Shortly after Apple released its iPhone, hackers developed unlocking software so the popular phone…
Unfair Sacrifice of User Interests if Unlocking iPhone is Illegal
The murkiness of the legality of unlocking the iPhone was highlighted recently by an AppleInsider article which suggested that actions of the ‘iPhone Dev Team’, hackers who are offering the…
Break the chains and unlock your iPhone
Intuitively it feels strange to ask whether consumers have a legal right to unlock iPhones, their own personal property. We don’t ask whether someone has a right to change Internet…