Legal Question

I believe that servers outside of the US only apply to their country's rules, and when opting out of the country, be sure to look up what laws apply. When a company complains about your website in the US, they can get subpoena, or even contact FBI in your area. Providing enough evidence, FBI can show up at your door without knowledge and hold temporary possession of your computer equipment. Programmers seem to be going to prison for "murder" these days. . . .

You all have very good points there... yet I have seen so many russian and french sites hosting illegal / cracking / "Security" related content.

I think crack me's are the way to go, and as long as you have permission from your host, there shouldn't be a problem. However, I am going to research this alot more.

Can anyone tell me a little more about the DMCA? Or give me a link to the "Law"?
Did anyone read my last post? What does everyone think about my Crack Me idea? I thought it'd be quite useful for newbie's, and still help people to crack REAL LIFE programs without doing anything illegal.

[JMI]

Hey... How difficult could it be to put DMCA in your favorite search engine and find out a great deal of information about the law.

Regards,

Ohh yea
Sorry JMI I punched myself for that stupidity. I looked DMCA up, and am contacting a legal friend about the law, ask him if he can basicly convert what I found into human readable form. I'll post what he says here tommorow.

OK Me and my friend went over the DMCA. It basicly says you aren't allowed to copy protected programs / cd's and or break and protection unless for legal copying (backup) purposes.

There are Six exceptions however, here's one of them:
2. Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits
circumvention, and the development of technological means for such
circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a
copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and
analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability
with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under
copyright law.

Therefor, crack me's ARE acceptable since the author is permitting you to crack the program. So my idea from above (Simulating REAL programs with crack me's) will work just fine.

I hope this helps some other people with their question(s) also.

[JMI]

One of the principle purposes of the DMCA is to protect Copyrighted materials. After all, it IS "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998."

Since crackme's are, generally, not copyrighted, their are, generally, not within the context of the DMCA.

Regards,