A universal garage door opener is not in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, even if used on a system made by another company, a U.S. District Court ruled Thursday.
The court ruled on a dispute between Skylink Technologies, the manufacturer of a universal remote control for garage door openers, and Chamberlain Group, the maker of garage door opener systems.
Skylink's remote interoperates with software developed by Chamberlain to activate its opener systems. Chamberlain sued Skylink, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and alleging that Skylink's transmitter violates the anti-circumvention provision of the law. The provision mandates that one may not bypass a technology that protects copyright material.
Chamberlain claims the rolling code in the software is a technology protection measure, and Skylink's transmitter unlawfully bypasses it.
The court disagreed. "Under Chamberlain's theory, any customer who loses his or her Chamberlain transmitter, but manages to operate the opener either with a non-Chamberlain transmitter or by some other means of circumventing the rolling code, has violated the DMCA," reads the opinion from Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer of the Northern District of Illinois U.S. District Court. "In this court's view, the statute does not require such a conclusion."
Chamberlain initially filed a motion for summary judgment -- a ruling made when the facts of the case are not disputed -- in its favor in December. The judge denied the motion, and stated that Skylink, instead, might be entitled to summary judgment. Skylink then filed a motion for summary judgment in September, which was granted on Thursday.
"The DMCA was intended to protect copyrighted content," said David Djavaherian, counsel for Skylink. "Using it to regulate the aftermarket for consumer goods such as universal transmitters or TV remote controls goes too far."
"This sort of case is not in the public interest," he said.
Attorneys for Chamberlain were unavailable for comment.
Critics of the DMCA believe the lawsuit was an abuse of the DMCA, used to trample the competition.
"This was a law meant to protect digital music and digital movies," said Joe Kraus, co-founder of DigitalConsumer.org. Chamberlain's claim is "well beyond what Congress intended" when it created the law.
Kraus said that the law can allow established companies in a marketplace to prevent innovators from encroaching on what these established companies believe to be their turf.
If companies like Chamberlain and Lexmark, which is suing manufacturers of cheap, aftermarket printer toner cartridges, prevail in these cases, "consumers would increasingly find that products that make their life easier by interoperating between different pieces of equipment couldn't exist, because companies would need permission to create these products," Kraus said.
Kraus was pleased with the ruling.
"It's good news," he said. "We're beginning to see some bounds placed on the extent to which the DMCA can be applied, and I think that's positive."
