In my DMCA paper, I point out that consumers with non-typical hardware and software devices, such as Linux users and audiophiles with high-end audio systems, are harmed by the DMCA. Reader Ben Galliart writes to point out another marginalized group that is particularly harmed by the DMCA: the disabled.
The anti-competive nature of the DMCA also extends to hurting the disabled. The American Disablities Act was passed to force employers to provide the additional resources to disabled employees to give them an equal opportunity to accomplish a job. Or put another way, it uses legal requirements to encourage addressing the technical obstacles to assisting the disabled. But the DMCA does the exact opposite by legally enforcing artifically created obstacles.
For example, eBook access for the blind. The technical obstacle for using a text to speech software package is getting the book in a format that the software can read. While the ADA can require an employer to provide a sound card so that use of text to speech software is possible, eBook’s right management allows the author to disable access to the feature. Any further attempt by the employer to further assist the employee for use of the eBook via text to speech is criminalized.
A publisher of an eBook usually has little to loose by disabling the text to speech software. Most points of sale for eBooks do not provide information on what eBooks disable the feature. Instead, the advantage is provided that any future audio version of the book will not have to compete with the text to speech option. Even if the author then does choose to provide a CD version of the book, it does not provide the same degree of control over the reader voice (speed, pitch, inflection, etc).
Lastly, DMCA also allows the creator of the eBook reader software to restrict access to text to speech functionality to the built-in feature. While a third party might provide improved features (such as an improved text to speech voice), the author of the eBook software can lock out the third party from accessing the material. The DMCA creates an enviroment where it is to the software author’s advantage to lock out third party plug-ins as to avoid having to compete with it’s features. The software author then can require the customer to purchase an upgrade to get features that otherwise could have been provided by a third party for a version of the software the customer already owns.
An excellent point!
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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