By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026Long after the price of read/write optical drives plummeted to pocket-change, there was still no such thing as a home DVD recorder that would let you stick a spindle full of discs next to the TV and use them to record all your favorite shows. 55/ 31557
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026Shortly after the DVD player emerged, Congress created the most powerful hook IP of all: "anti-circumvention law." Under anti-circumvention law, it's a literal crime - a felony - to modify or reimplement a technology without permission from the manufacturer. 56/ 31617
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 26/08/2026In 1998, Bill Clinton signed America's landmark anticircumvention law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, section 1201 of which establishes a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine for "bypassing an access control": pluralistic.net/2026/01/14/s... 57/pluralistic.netPluralistic: It’s not normal (14 Jan 2026) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow 115011
JauntyWunderKind @jauntywunderkind.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Monsters. A law against the spirit of man, against man the toolmaker. Against the Enlightenment project to understand the universe about us. Against the will to shape and improve that which is around us. An abomination of the highest sin. 030
David Monniaux @monniauxd.bsky.social · 26/08/2026And the US pressured other countries to adopt the same and pressured them against interoperability measures (see e.g. DADVSI law in France). 010
