DMCA madness as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real attacked

El Reg is reporting on an American company who have issued cease and desist letters to Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Real citing the DMCA. The company is Media Rights Technologies and their press release on the matter seems to claim that by not using the DRM solutions they provide Apple's iTunes, Adobe's Flash Player and Microsoft's Vista wilfully allow circumvention of copyright protection and are therefore in breach of the DMCA. As they say "Under the DMCA, mere avoidance of an effective copyright protection solution is a violation of the act" so in not using MRT's X1 SeCure Recording Control these companies are liable. A crime of omission one could say.

It's almost crazy enough to be an anti-DMCA ploy, but this is far from that. MRT are attempting to get their product licensed and gain recognition. Whether they feel they have a real chance of using the DMCA against any of the targets is beside the point. As well as providing some publicity for the company, hopefully the strategy will show more people how absurd and frankly dangerous the DMCA really is.