RE: Jail for seller of illegal Xbox chips

["Mark Hetherington" <mark.egroups@xxxxxxx>]

David Buckley wrote:
> Mark Hetherington wrote:
> > Maybe you would also desire the right to take it apart, copy the
> parts,
> > build your own version then set up in competition based on their
> > product?
> >
>
> Ahhh... Mars v Teknowledge...
[snip]
> What the
> owner has is the full right of ownership. With that goes an
> entitlement "to dismantle the machine to find out how it works
and
> tell anyone he pleases" (a right recognised by Morritt J in Alfa
> Laval v Wincanton). "

An oft quoted passage which unfortunately loses the context provided by
the rest of the ruling which explains the limited quotation from "Alfa
Laval v. Wincanton" which also stated that this right was only
available
if it did not infringe IP rights. In "Mars v. Teknowledge", the
infringement of IP rights had been admitted so there was no need to
further qualify in this regard when examing the existence of "quality
of
confidence" nor refer to the full remarks of the former case.

The "right" to break encryption that might be inferred from the
case is
of course removed by the latest EU directives.


Mark.