There appears to be this underlying expectation writings found on
IPWatchdog® have some inherent extra-commercial value that they must be
protected as the holiest of holies, founts of wisdom to be preserved from being
profaned down through the ages (i.e. "freely available, quality content", an
example of fair use copying for purposes of criticism, comment disallowed by Mr.
Quinn).
You could note that the ban on selecting text in his articles is a
use control (i.e. it doesn't prevent access), and in addition to disabling
javascript as Mr. Lee indicates I can think of two other easy ways to prevent
the code in frustrate_copy.js from preventing selection of text by
filtering user input without the fear of consequences under the DMCA. The use of
an Ad Blocker or Greasemonkey to prevent the particular script from downloading
comes to mind. There are likely other methods, in general capable of
incidentally blocking the advertising upon which he claims to depend.
You
could also note that
Digiprove which Mr. Quinn relies on for digital signing doesn't appear to
actually sell copy prevention schemes while finding a subdirectory
digiproveblog containing the copy frustration script isn't that
uncommon, found on a significant number of WordPress blogs the idea that of
copyright value inflation by authors. Unfortunately as a DRM scheme the script
is about as effective as those CD copy protection schemes that can be defeated
with a permanent marker.
Mr. Quinn also appears to inflate the value of
advertising considering that he also appears to be involved in training
potential patent examiners - "We have a great group of sponsors and advertisers
and without them I could not devote full-time to IPWatchdog.com. Thus, our free
content, advertiser supported model requires us to entice readers to come to our
website and read our quality, free content that is full of analysis and
insight."(another example of fair use for criticism, comment).
For anyone
interested, Mr. Quinn is an adjunct professor with the John Marshall Law School
in Chicago, Illinois, The Center for Intellectual Property Law. Besides having
an impressive bar exam pass rate were you to peruse the faculty lists you'd find
a variety of names you'd recognize and hold in high regard. Philosophical
differences aside Mr. Quinn stands in exemplary company.
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