[Zope] Zope killed by TCPA?

[robin abbi]

Hi Chris,

in the European Union, all member countries should, by
22 December 2002, have passed laws that will prohibit
the possession, sale, 
manufacture, import, advertisement of computer
equipment that is able to 
defeat technological measures designed to protect
copyrighted works 
unless that computer equipment has significant
commercial purpose for 
other uses.
My understanding is that the CBDTPA (Consumer
Broadband and Digital 
Television Promotion Act in the US contains similar
wording). The exact 
wording is included at the bottom of this post.

Now, to the extent that TCPA/Palladium will be
accepted as an "effective 
technological measure", as I understand it (and if
anyone knows any 
different please tell me so I can forget about this
and concentrate on 
more productive work), possession of any computer able
to be used to 
access files protected via TCPA/Palladium will be
outlawed (subject to 
the significant commercial purpose test above
mentioned).

An (extremly) pessimistic reading might be that in
Europe, we will only 
be able to purchase computers without TCPA or some
equivalent system 
until such time as some large corporate persuades a
judge that 
servers/PCs capable of running open source tools such
as Zope have a 
"limited commercially significant purpose".

So in Europe at any rate it appears that the playing
field has been 
significantly tilted in favour of TCPA/Palladium.
Thus, any one 
investing in software (ie Zope) that (presumably) will
require non-TCPA 
hardware is making a gamble that the necessary
hardware will continue to 
be available. This is I think the major difference
with the PS/2 
analogy: back then no corporate decision maker had to
worry that future 
possession of an ISA card could be a criminal offence.

Zope is a marvellous tool. This thread has generated a
lot of comment, 
some say there is no problem with Zope and
TCPA/Palladium, others say 
TCPA will be economically insignificant, others that
the two factions 
will emergre, living parallel lives.

What nobody is yet saying is that as a community we
have weighed the 
Zope developement and implementation process against
what is known about 
TCPA/Palladium and that as a result it is:
a) no change needed, business as usual
or
b) TCPA/Palladium will cause us to alter how we work,
what we can do in 
the following ways ......
or
c) something else.

I don't know about other folks, but clients are
looking for more than a 
shrug of the shoulders, when we are pitching against
the C#/.asp crowd.

Best wishes,

Rob




  2. Member States shall provide adequate legal
protection against the 
manufacture, import, distribution, sale, rental,
advertisement for sale 
or rental, or possession for commercial purposes of
devices, products or 
components or the provision of services which:

(a) are promoted, advertised or marketed for the
purpose of 
circumvention of, or

(b) have only a limited commercially significant
purpose or use other 
an to circumvent, or

(c) are primarily designed, produced, adapted or
performed for the 
purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention
of,

any effective technological measures.

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