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  "publishedAt": "2026-03-16T14:53:56.000Z",
  "site": "https://tumblr.sztupy.hu",
  "tags": [
    "mostlysignssomeportents",
    "https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/16/whittle-a-webserver/#mere-ornaments",
    "https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/02/handwriting-wall-and-page-senate-passes-tax-bill/915957001/",
    "https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/11/the-canada-variant/#shitty-man-of-history-theory",
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Glazier#Work_for_hire",
    "https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865892/thebezzle/",
    "https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131669037",
    "https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/14/sole-and-despotic/#world-turned-upside-down",
    "Keep reading"
  ],
  "textContent": "mostlysignssomeportents:\n\n> mostlysignssomeportents:\n>\n>> ALT\n>>\n>> **If you ’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:**\n>>\n>> **https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/16/whittle-a-webserver/#mere-ornaments**\n>>\n>> When you think of a legal loophole, you probably imagine a drafting error (or perhaps a sneaky insertion) that creates an advantage for a specific person or group of people.\n>>\n>> For example: Trump’s 2017 “Big Beautiful Tax Cut” bill passed after its 479 pages were _covered_ in hand-scrawled amendments and additions, which were not read or reviewed by lawmakers prior to voting:\n>>\n>> https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/12/02/handwriting-wall-and-page-senate-passes-tax-bill/915957001/\n>>\n>> But one change that _was_ widely known was Senator Ron Johnson’s last-minute amendment to create deductions for “pass through entities.” Johnson announced that he would block the bill if his amendment didn’t go through. That amendment made three of Johnson’s constituents _at least half a billion dollars_ : Uline owners Dick and Liz Uihlein and roofing tycoon Diane Hendricks (who collectively donated $20m to Johnson’s campaign).\n>>\n>> All told, the Trump tax bill generated windfalls worth more than $1b for just 82 households, all of whom donated lavishly to the lawmakers who inserted incredibly specific amendments that benefited them, personally:\n>>\n>> https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/11/the-canada-variant/#shitty-man-of-history-theory\n>>\n>> Here’s another example: in 1999, a Congressional staffer named Mitch Glazier secured a last-minute, one-line amendment to the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act that took away musicians’ ability to claim back the rights to their sound recordings after 35 years through a process called “Termination of Transfer”:\n>>\n>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Glazier#Work_for_hire\n>>\n>> This amendment whacked one group of musicians particularly hard: the Black “heritage acts” who had been coerced into signing _unbelievably shitty_ contracts in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, who were increasingly using termination to get those rights back. For these beloved musicians, termination meant the difference between going hungry and buying a couple extra bags of groceries every month (if this sounds familiar, it might be because you read about it in my 2024 novel _The Bezzle_):\n>>\n>> https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865892/thebezzle/\n>>\n>> Glazier’s treachery was so outrageous that Congress actually convened a special session to repeal his amendment, and Glazier slunk out of Congress forever…so that he could take a job at $1.3m/year as CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, where he squats to this day, insisting that he is fighting for musicians’ rights:\n>>\n>> https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/131669037\n>>\n>> These are the traditional loopholes – obscure codicils in legislation that allow their beneficiaries to enrich themselves at others’ expense. But there’s another, equally pernicious kind of loophole that gets far less attention: a loophole that _neutralizes_ a beneficial part of a law, _taking away_ a right that the law seems to confer.\n>>\n>> I have spent most of my adult life fighting against one of these rights-confiscating reverse loopholes: the “exemptions” clause to Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA 1201), which might just be the most dangerous technology law on the books:\n>>\n>> https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/14/sole-and-despotic/#world-turned-upside-down\n>>\n>> Under DMCA 1201, it’s a felony – punishable by a 5-year sentence and a $500k fine – to bypass an “access control” for a copyrighted work. This means that altering the software (that is, “a copyrighted work”) in a device you own – a car, a tractor, a hearing aid, a smart speaker, a printer, a phone, a console, etc, etc – is a crime, _even if your alteration does not break any other laws_.\n>>\n>> For example: there is no law requiring you to buy your printer ink from the company that sold you your printer. However, the cartel of companies that control the inkjet market all use software that is designed to block generic ink. You _could_ turn this code off, but that would be a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA, which means that, in practice, it’s a felony to put generic ink in your printer. Jay Freeman calls it “felony contempt of business model.”\n>>\n>> When the DMCA was being debated, lawmakers faced fierce criticism over this clause, so they inserted a “safety valve” into the law that was supposed to prevent the kind of abuse that allows printer companies to force you to pay $10,000/gallon for ink.\n>>\n>> That escape valve is called the “triennial exemptions process.” Every three years, the US Copyright Office invites submissions for “exemptions” to DMCA 1201. They’ve granted lots of these – the right to circumvent access controls on video games for preservation purposes, on DVDs for film criticism, and on various kinds of electronics for repair.\n>>\n>> This process may strike you as a little cumbersome – do you really have to wait up to three years to pay a lawyer to beg the government for the right to make a legal use of your own property? But this is a reverse loophole, and that means that this isn’t merely cumbersome, it’s _farcical_.\n>>\n>> Keep reading\n>\n> ALT",
  "title": "Tools vs uses"
}