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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
(Unverified)Jul 26th 2010 8:44AM
Bear in mind that this is the first court to reach this conclusion. It is by no means certain that other Circuit Courts would go along with this reading of the law.
There are separate provision in the DMCA for fair use and the Librarian of Congress has the authority to create exceptions to the ban on circumvention for specific technologies or purposes. It seems like this ruling would create another exception. The extent of the ruling isn't exactly clear (it seems to revolve around very specific circumstances.) So I'm not sure that you can say that you are now permitted to circumvent DRM to media you own. But I don't think that's gonna stop anyone reading this website from changes their evil ways :-)
Also note that the DMCA has a number of elements to it, on of which is the Anti-Circumvention statute, which is included in accordance with international law. Another part of the DMCA is the notice-and-takedown procedure that you refer to in the article, which was not at issue in this case.
Also in the DMCA? Protection for the shapes of vessel hulls... I kid you not.
(Unverified)Jul 26th 2010 8:48AM
Ah! Someone who knows his stuff!
I was just thinking that, in some cases, you get a cease/desist letter for downloading a movie via BitTorrent. If you already own that movie (on DVD, or whatever), then that's fair use.
I figured, with this ruling, that RIAA/MPAA/etc won't be so eager to send letters now that 'fair use' has a bit of a legal precedent :)
(Unverified)Jul 26th 2010 8:58AM
@Sebastian: :-) Yeah, you would think so... and actually MPAA & RIAA have stopped suing individuals, haven't they?
However, something like that has never been legal in the US. (In some European countries you are allowed to make a personal copy of works for yourself, but uploading (i.e. seeding) is still illegal.)
What you're describing is a straight up violation of plain vanilla copyright: thou shalt not copy another's work. Even if you own a work, you are not allowed to make copies, unfortunately. But again, that's not gonna stop any readers of this blog from changing their evil ways :-)
Modred189Jul 26th 2010 9:17AM
actually, Maarten, that's not true. In the US, fair use laws (U.S.C Section 107) allow you to back up your media, legally, for your own purposes. So I can legally make backup copies of CDs, so long as those backups are for ME. The only reason you cannot legally backup DVDs is because they are encrypted, and the DMCA purportedly made the circumvention of that encryption illegal.
(Unverified)Jul 26th 2010 9:27AM
@Fred: I was thinking about that after I posted my reply. I wasn't sure if the right to backup is actually established through case law, but it definitely fits the fair use analysis. In may European countries, copyright statutes grant you a private copy exception or an explicit grant that allows for one backup copy.
However, in the context of this discussion (DRM) either breaking the copy-protection, or *downloading* a backup copy are both illegal, correct?
Modred189Jul 26th 2010 9:52AM
@ Maarten. Correct. Downloading it is illegal because you are not paying for something, and by downloading it, are essentially making an unauthorized copy. Straight copyright law, no DRM or DMCA implications for the most part. The Copying from DVD to file by the uploader is illegal because of the DRM-breaking involved + illegal distribution..