[mythtv-users] Now legal to decrypt DVDs?

Brian J. Murrell brian at interlinx.bc.ca
Mon Jul 26 19:46:07 UTC 2010


On Mon, 2010-07-26 at 13:29 -0600, Brian Wood wrote: 
> 

Huge, IANAL disclaimer here, but here is my layman's POV on this...

> The MPAA has fought a DMCA exception for "fair use" in the past, claiming that an acceptable substitute is aiming a 
> camcorder at a screen, so don't hold your breath.

Right.  That's a different argument altogether though.  They were
arguing what could be used to provide the user's fair-use right.

This argument is about whether it's [il]legal to circumvent protections
in order to access (but not copy) content.  Period.  This argument is
orthogonal to any fair-use discussion, IMHO.

IOW, the question being answered here is not "does one need to
circumvent in order to enjoy one's fair-use right".  The question being
answered here is simply is it legal to circumvent for the purposes of
access.  Of course, the fun will be in watching Pandora's box open.

This issue is very hot here in Canada right now as our US copyright
lobby puppets, er, government I mean of course, tries to ram a US-style
DMCA down our throats.  They claim it's (requiring digital locks to
trump all other access rights) required to meet WIPO when anyone who has
a clue understands that WIPO does not require any sort of "digital locks
trumps all" requirement.  Indeed, as I understand, other governments
have successfully met WIPO obligations while allowing circumvention for
non-infringing uses.

Allowing access, even if that requires circumvention is all really quite
common-sensical.  Common sense though is completely absent in any
discussion where the RIAA, MPAA and their government puppets are
concerned.

b.

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