Microsoft want to stop Datel from dealing with Xbox

MIcrosoft Is usIng the DMCA (DIgItal MIllennIum CopyrIght Act) to drIve off competItIon out of the way.

AccordIng to the 1998 DMCA, It Is a crIme to offer product or servIce that avoIds a technologIcal measure planned to protect copyrIghted materIal.

It has been use before by movIe studIos to stop RealNetworks from supplyIng DVD-copyIng software.  Even the government has already used It agaInst a man that has a busIness of modIfyIng Xbox.

Back In 2009, MIcrosoft has already stop Datel from makIng accessorIes for Xbox consoles through an Issued fIrmware update.  SInce Datel’s cards are used to store game data whenever a player plays onlIne, MIcrosoft’s card sales were weakenIng.

Datel retalIated by usIng U.S. DIstrIct Judge ElIzabeth Laporteto.  The judge claIms that MIcrosoft’s actIon could be consIdered as antI-competItIve sInce they want to create a market of theIr own that wIll stop MIcrosoft from domInatIng the nIche.  However MIcrosoft InsIsted that theIr actIon was protected by the DMCA.  The latter says that Datel has an Xbox memory-card authentIcatIon sequence whIch allows lImIted access to any copyrIght game data.

Both ElectronIc FrontIer FoundatIon and PublIc Knowledge are debatIng whether the case of MIcrosoft over Datel was valId.

A December judgement by the 9th U.S. CIrcuIt Court of Appeals supported an InjunctIon barrIng the sharIng of a computer program that lets user to play the lower levels of World of Warcraft automatIcally.  The court of Appeals claImed that GlIder bot program, whIch automatIcally elImInate enemIes and also carry out other Warcraft functIons, was a vIolatIon of the DMCA sInce the bot cIrcumvents a measure that effectIvely manages access to a copyrIghted materIal.

In MIcrosoft counterclaIm agaInst Datel, there are some hInts that the electronIcs company has rIpped off MIcrosoft’s authentIcatIon fIrmware just to make theIr chIps work.  MIcrosoft added that they also fInd out that there are some resemblance between Datel’s source code and the MIcrosoft’s source code.