The Best-Laid Plans of Copyright Law
Congress rewrote copyright law with the stated intention of giving the owners of creative material, including music, books, and films, new weapons to fight the piracy made possible by digital media. Critics warned that the law was so broadly drawn that all sorts of companies might use it to stifle competition. Like most observers, I dismissed these warnings as paranoid ravings. But if Lexmark prevails in a lawsuit it has filed against Sanford (N.C.) chipmaker Static Control Components, their worst fears may come to pass.
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