Court Rules It’s Legal to Use Hacked Codes…If You’re GE

[The Straight Story]

Court Rules It’s Legal to Use Hacked Codes…If You’re GE

A federal appeals court has ruled it was okay for General Electric to use computer software copyrighted by another company even though it hacked its way into the protected technology. The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by MGE UPS Systems, manufacturer of uninterruptible power supply machines used by Power Maintenance International (PMI), which GE bought in 2001. When PMI fixed its machines, it used information provided by hackers to access the MGE technology, instead of utilizing an external hardware security key called a “dongle.” Judge Emilio Garza ruled: “Merely bypassing a technological protection that restricts a user from viewing or using a work is insufficient to trigger the (Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s) anti-circumvention provision.”

MGE asserted that GE used the software in dispute even after a judge ordered GE not to in August 2005. A jury awarded MGE more than $4.6 million in damages for misappropriation of trade secrets and copyright infringement, but the judge dismissed the judgment.

http://www.allgov.com/Controversies/ViewNews/Court_Rules_Its_Legal_to_Use_Hacked_Codes__If_Youre_GE_100725

[Recursion]

1. Hasn't that always been how the DMCA worked?

Simple bypassing for fair use of the protected content has AFAIK never been illegal. (Now, I have no idea if the use GE made was actually fair, but granting that, this is how the DMCA is supposed to work, right?)

[LoZoccolo]

5. I've been thinking about this since I switched from an iPhone to an Android phone.

I'm trying to find out if it would break the DMCA to get rid of the DRM on songs I've bought from the iTunes music store simply to make them compatible with other players. Of course iTunes always lets you burn discs, so that's one way, but I don't want to convert between formats if I don't have to. I'll probably get around to researching this someday.

[dsc]

2. It might be a little more complicated than that

apparently if the commenter at the site is right the court affirmed an injunction banning GE from using the info but then negated the award.

[petronius]

4. It seems from reading the judgement that the court found that circumventing the dongle

didn't (in some arcane way) violate the DMCA, but that GE had in fact violated copyright in other way, which is why the injunction against GE using the software was left in place. However, the software owner couldn't prove any damages, so the monetary award was erased. Now my brain hurts...

[w4rma]

3. So now there is a federal appeals court precident for bypassing dongles. Fine with me. (nt)

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Not quite.

GE was found in violation of contract/license agreement. What was reversed was that they violated DMCA as well