That Damnable DMCA

Just as an aside before we get started (if that's possible)... can anyone actually read and make sense out of this gibberish:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/512.html

No wonder the average little guy doesn't stand a very good chance in court.... what the **** does that drivel mean that it had to be written like that

Anyway... I picked this /. article out of Hero Zzyyxxzz's sig:

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/11/20/1753238

Basically, Wal Mart, Staples, Best Buy, and Target don't want anyone publishing their Black Friday sale specials early. And the real kick in the face is... they're using the DMCA to enforce it. Now, alright, here's where this pretty much would end for me if I wasn't such a socially conscious fellow ( ): I'm not going to shop at any of those four stores. Ever again. Real simple. They want to pull this sort of crap, fine, but I won't buy from them anymore.

This is troubling though, so I'm going to babble about it. If the DMCA can be invoked for something this idiotically trivial, what else could it be applied to? This could be the start of a frightening trend where companies can slap the consumer silly and the courts only hand them a mallet to do it better.

So, where do we go from here? Where does the DMCA stop? Will consumers have ANY rights under the DMCA while it exists, or are we suddenly truly at the mercy of big corporations?

Yeah it makes sense... It's typical legal phrasing...

Basically it takes the blame off the company/institution and places liability with the person. Thus the individual doesn't get a good deal.

It's all quite clever.