March 28, 2024

Microsoft Does The Right Thing

Microsoft has decided not to try using the DMCA to censor a paper by former MIT student Andrew “Bunnie” Huang about security mechanisms in Microsoft’s Xbox videogame console. (See this announcment.) Good for Microsoft! If more companies behave like Microsoft did in this case, the DMCA would do less harm.

Let’s not forget, though, that the DMCA created a situation where Huang essentially had to ask Microsoft’s permission to publish the paper. He had to withhold his paper for a period of time and he had to spend sizable lawyer resources to get what the Constitution is supposed to guarantee him – his right to free speech. The DMCA is still a problem, but Microsoft kept it from being a bigger one.