[Ninjalawyer]

The anti-circumvention provision is similar to anti-circumvention provisions in U.S. and Canadian legislation, and is just as poorly thought out.

So I can copy a file for my own use, unless the publisher has put a digital lock on it, and then it becomes illegal? Why does a publisher's imposition of a digital lock change my right to make a backup for my own use? I can't distribute the backup in any event. This does, however, serve to highlight how skewed copyright has become in the UK (and Canada, and the U.S.) toward copyrightholders rather than the public (i.e., by allowing the copyrightholder to control your right to do something that most probably don't think of as wrong).

It's even more insane (but not at all surprising) that not only did copyrightholders fight this right, they also tried to demand some form of compensation for letting people have it.