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After watching the mini-lecture on the Medical Object Video Project,
consider what kind of medical object you would like to research further.
This is an opportunity to start thinking about your final project. You
should spend time looking at different resources to generate ideas. If
you already know what medical object you’d like to research, spend time
looking into the object further and discuss what kind of object from our
reading it most closely resembles. Your post should be between 250-500
words and should include links to different websites, embedded video
content, and other supporting images.
# Medical Devices, the DMCA, and the corporate profit motive
The Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) section 1201 makes the
circumvention of Digital Rights Management (DRM) illegal, even when
doing so wouldn't violate any other copyright protection.
The DMCA allows companies like Netflix and Amazon to punish piracy of
the movies and television they stream, but, [until
recently](https://gizmodo.com/its-now-legal-to-hack-drm-to-repair-your-own-devices-1830002757),
it let manufacturers like John Deere prohibit you from repairing your
own device (like a tractor), and [it lets
medical device manufacturers like Medtronic prohibit you from testing
their security](https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/03/turnkey-authoritarianism/#minimed)
or repair their ventilators without [requiring an overpriced,
unavailable Medtronic mechanic come type in a special
code](https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/10/flintstone-delano-roosevelt/#medtronic-again).
It's "felonizing contempt of business model," as [consumer advocate
Cory Doctorow puts it](https://pluralistic.net/2020/10/24/1201-v-dl-youtube/).
[IMAGE: An xkcd comic about the DMCA. CAPTION: While not as draconian as
this comic portrays it, the DMCA has empowered groups like the MPAA and
RIAA to enforce private contracts in order to forward profit motives,
very often in a way detrimental to the consumer. SRC:
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/1337_part_4.png]
But these problems aren't exclusive to the DMCA.
The DMCA is just one way in which megacorps, often with monopoly or
oligopoly status, maintain their profits---at the expense of customers.
Insulin pumps, pacemakers, ventilators, and insulin, by nature of the
market, have maintained the power of their originators over their users.
Intellectual property, in the form of patents and copyright, and a
political system that allows Super PAC lobbying and pay-for-delay is how
corporations maintain their hegemony.
There is a fundamental issue with the way the current system is being
run, and I want to look into that with the help of a medical device or
high-cost drug.
These are symptoms, and I think that I'll be able to find evidence that,
despite the good that research funneled through corporations has done,
the system that rewards corporations so heavily is unjust.
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