About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

21 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 365 (2006)
Davidson & Associates v. Jung: (Re)Interpreting Access Control

handle is hein.journals/berktech21 and id is 377 raw text is: DA VIDSON & ASSOCIATES V. JUNG. (RE)INTERPRETING ACCESS CONTROLS By A.H. Rajani The entertainment industry has long viewed the internet as a threat be- cause of the ease with which original digital works can be copied and transmitted, rendering traditional copyright protections ineffective.' In or- der to harness the earning potential of this new medium, the industry ar- gued, it had to rely on a system of technological locks and access controls to prevent unauthorized access and copying.2 Accordingly, Congress in 1998 enacted the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to provide legal protection and remedies against the circumvention of those techno- logical protection measures.3 For the videogame industry, CD key authentication is just one of many technological protection measures designed to prevent unauthorized instal- lation and/or duplication of game software.4 Videogame publishers usually include a unique CD key with each CD-ROM and a customer is required to enter this CD key during software installation. But as the market for multiplayer online games expands, CD key authentication is being radi- cally redefined in a way that locks competitors out of a variety of secon- dary markets for videogames. Propelling this trend, the Eighth Circuit, through an overly broad interpretation of the DMCA, held that a group of gamers who created an alternate game server that interoperated and com- © 2006 A.H. Rajani 1. Joseph P. Liu, Regulatory Copyright, 83 N.C.L. REV. 87, 129-39 (2004); John Markoff, Five Giants In Technology Unite to Deter File Sharing, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 5, 2004, at Cl. 2. See LEE A. HOLLAAR, LEGAL PROTECTION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION 199-202 (2002). 3. Universal City Studios v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 435 (2d Cir. 2001) (citing pro- tection from piracy as the reason Congress enacted the DMCA). For background and legislative history, see DAVID NIMMER, COPYRIGHT: SACRED TEXT, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE DMCA 385-443 (2003); Diane M. Barker, Note, Defining the Contours of the Digi- tal Millennium Copyright Act: The Growing Body of Case Law Surrounding the DMCA, 20 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 47, 50-51 (2005); Matt Jackson, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: An Historical Analysis of Copyright Liability, 20 CARDOzO ARTS & ENT. L.J. 367, 408-10 (2002). 4. See generally Copy Protection, WIKIPEDIA: THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA, http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/copy-protection (last visited Mar. 17, 2006).

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most