Can Microsoft use the DMCA to kill competing Xbox 360 accessories?
Can Microsoft remotely disable third-party accessories from working with the Xbox 360 and get away with it?
The Redmond, Washington software- and console-maker did just that, and claims copyright law gave it the right. At issue is Microsoft’s 2009 remote disabling of Datel memory cards, which prompted an antitrust lawsuit that lives on today—litigation that has morphed into the latest test of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The 1998 DMCA makes it a crime or civil violation to offer a product or service that circumvents a technological measure designed to protect copyrighted material. Movie studios asserted that part of the law to block RealNetworks from distributing DVD-copying software, and Sony invoked it against PlayStation hacker George Hotz, whose mod allowed the PlayStation game console to play pirated and home-brewed games. The government also cited the law in its criminal prosecution of a California man for running a business modding Xboxes.
