- Joined
- Apr 5, 2009
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It seems everyone is pretty excited about the Library of Congress' new rulings on the DMCA, which amongst other things appears to make jailbreaking a phone completely legal. And while I appreciate the decision, since it appears to be the right thing to do, I see few people questioning the L.O.C.'s authority to make this ruling? From where do they garner their power?
The Librarian is appointed, and for what appears to be a life term. There are no provisions that I can find for impeaching/removing the librarian. And without a clar understanding of where his powers are derrived from, how can we limit them? Which branch of government has the authority to overturn these rulings? One could hope the Supreme Court would have the final judgement, but do they really? Even the Supreme Court cannot arbitraily run around creating or striking down laws without formal proceedings. Yet the L.O.C. seems to have almost limitless abilities to do exactly that with regard to copyrights.
Some may say, hell, it's just copyrights. But look what just happened. This decision just muted the legal justification for Apple to threaten and intimidate owners of iPhones for tampering with "their" device. Millions of dollars at stake and one person made it all go away with a snap of his fingers. Yes, I agree with the decision, but we cannot simply accept a decision based on merit alone, there must be some authority behind it, be it an executive cabinet, a judicial role or an arm of Congress. But we have very clear procedures for these things.
I recently made a similar observation about Ray Lahood when he made what amounted to a decree banning texting by all commercial drivers. He did not have the authority to create law, and the president did not issue executive order, yet somehow nobody batted an eye.
And this isn't an Obama thing....it's a government thing. And I'm waking up to a lot of it very recently.
The Librarian is appointed, and for what appears to be a life term. There are no provisions that I can find for impeaching/removing the librarian. And without a clar understanding of where his powers are derrived from, how can we limit them? Which branch of government has the authority to overturn these rulings? One could hope the Supreme Court would have the final judgement, but do they really? Even the Supreme Court cannot arbitraily run around creating or striking down laws without formal proceedings. Yet the L.O.C. seems to have almost limitless abilities to do exactly that with regard to copyrights.
Some may say, hell, it's just copyrights. But look what just happened. This decision just muted the legal justification for Apple to threaten and intimidate owners of iPhones for tampering with "their" device. Millions of dollars at stake and one person made it all go away with a snap of his fingers. Yes, I agree with the decision, but we cannot simply accept a decision based on merit alone, there must be some authority behind it, be it an executive cabinet, a judicial role or an arm of Congress. But we have very clear procedures for these things.
I recently made a similar observation about Ray Lahood when he made what amounted to a decree banning texting by all commercial drivers. He did not have the authority to create law, and the president did not issue executive order, yet somehow nobody batted an eye.
And this isn't an Obama thing....it's a government thing. And I'm waking up to a lot of it very recently.