Indeed, that is the point of the article. While you can lease a car, the car doesnt have the power to determine if you have breached the lease, and then disable itself. The concept of "self help" appears to be inherent in digital intellectual property - and represents a new phenomenon, that courts have not yet fully addressed. Digital Rights Management is nothing more than a euphemism for "self-help." The copyright holder dictates the rights of users (which is typical) but then uses DRM to enforce these rights on its own. Whether it is Zune allowing only 3 uses of a song, or Apple restricting ability to transfer songs to non-Apple machines, courts need to address whether these DRM schemes are merely "features" of the technology, or impermissible "self-help." The early cases focus on whether the parties are informed of the self help, but this does not go far enough - it is one thing to disable the IP when a royalty is not paid - another thing to disable an entire enterprise until a royalty is paid, and repaid. As the courts held in the early cases, this constitutes economic extortion. Where to draw the line?



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