Bob Says… Let’s Not Give Thanks for the EFF

You may have read that the EFF [Electronic Freedom Foundation] has spoken out against Apple’s gagging of a bunch of ‘hackers’ planning to heist the iTunes music database. Or you may have better things to do with your time. God knows I do, and this is meant to be my job. Anyway, “Apple Confuses Speech with a DMCA Violation” scream the EFF. Allow me to provide a quick glossary for the slower amongst you. By “speech” they mean freedom of speech, as enshrined in the first amendment to their beloved Constitution, and by “DMCA” they mean the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a strangely fascist piece of legislation which the Land of the Free chose to enact late last century. What follows is the kind of whiney point-by-point rebuttal you’d get if the Macalope were a lawyer. I’m sure that this kind of wankery is exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind. And I’m sure I’m not the only one to enjoy the irony that the EFF does not open itself to commenters. Today I shall be giving thanks that I live in a civilised country.