Wired reports that Lexmark has won its case against Static Control, a company that provides competition to the Lexmark's monopoly on ink cartridges for Lexmark printers. Lexmark built a specialized chip system into their printers that prevent the use of ink cartridges that don't have a certain chip built into them. Static Control figured out a way to make their own cartridges work and sold them as a low cost alternative to the price-gouging offerings from Lexmark.
Lexmark then sued under the auspices of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act which was passed to aid in stemming the illegal copying of copyrighted Intellectual Property, mostly music and video. One of the most controversial aspects of the DMCA is that it outlawed the circumvention of copyright controls such as encryption, even if the reason for the circumvention was to use the copyrighted material in legal ways. This has the effect of locking up material that can otherwise be legally used.
In this case, Lexmark claims that Static Control's discovery of how to integrate their ink cartridges with Lexmark printers violates this same rule. The most amazing thing is that Lexmark claims this is good for competition:
From the article linked above:
Vincent Cole, Lexmark's general counsel, said Thursday the company was pleased. "We believe that our printing solutions and services make us unique, and we intend to vigorously protect the intellectual property that helps to set us apart from our competition," he said in the statement.
Huh? What competitors do you have when you shut off their access to the market? Zero! Nada! Nai! Njet!
It is this kind of application of the DMCA that nicely illustrates how flawed it is. The idea behind copyright is to encourage innovation by protection granting a short-term monopoly to innovators for profit. DMCA was supposed to just help provide that incentive, but here we see it being applied to squash innovation and reduce marketplace competition. It hurts the job market (imagine if Static Control has to close up shop. More unemployed, yo).
Anyone interested in understanding more of how the DMCA is ruining the world should read this PDF from the Electronic Freedom Foundation.
Posted by Nutrimentia at March 3, 2003 02:34 AM