Cato Institute flames DMCA, DRM
The strictly libertarian Cato Institute (in the US, of course) has spoken out last week against the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and – even better – DRM. Its main criticism is that the DMCA is "circumventing competition":
The DMCA is anti-competitive. It gives copyright holders—and the technology
companies that distribute their content—the legal power to create closed technology
platforms and exclude competitors from interoperating with them. Worst of all, DRM
technologies are clumsy and ineffective; they inconvenience legitimate users but do
little to stop pirates.
While this isn’t world revolution quite yet, the fact that a think tank so fixated on the overriding sanctity of private property would say such a thing shows that there is brain activity in unexpected quarters.