Are Your Bits Worn Out? The DMCA, Replacement Parts, and Forced Repeat Software Purchases
Todd C. Adelmann
University of Colorado School of Law
2010

Adelmann discusses the problems inherent within the hardware-software war and the consumer who is caught in the middle. He promotes the idea that because many types of software are contained within hardware, consumers often are forced to purchase the same software multiple times when a single license should suffice. Adelmann believes the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act inadvertently has allowed monopolization of the replacement-parts market that includes software the consumer is forced to purchase repeatedly.

His paper has three essential parts: 1) a discussion of the actual policy and how it is affecting the hardware and software industry; 2) several examples to bring the discussion home for readers, including a case involving Sega’s creation of both the hardware necessary to play videogames and its control of software elements required for game cartridges to work in its game console; and 3) arguments that Congress did not intend for courts to interpret the DMCA as they have.

Adelmann concludes by noting that it is not incremental costs in software but the monopoly effect created by the DMCA that has led to market imbalance.

The full article is here.