Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's a stupid law, but it is the law, and Alf is very sensible to be wary of it. I would be, too, in his position.
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I've finally decided to actually go and look it up in the UK laws. Of course, this is only my interpretation of the legislation. IANAL, and I might have got things wrong, so don't rely on this, but:
Removing DRM from ebooks for personal use is apparently illegal in the UK, but a civil offence, not a criminal one, just like ripping a CD. "
The following persons have the same rights against B [the person circumventing DRM] as a copyright owner has in respect of an infringement of copyright"
Getting hold of DRM removal software for your own use, however, seems to be legal (see clause b below), but (somewhat to my surprise — I had thought only commercial distribution was a criminal offence), it might be an offence to distribute DRM circumention software, even non-commercially (clause d):
"
(1) A person commits an offence if he— [...] (b) imports otherwise than for his private and domestic use, or [...] (d) distributes otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the copyright owner,
any device, product or component which is primarily designed, produced, or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures."
I think it would be possible to argue that ebook DRM removal software doesn't affect prejudicially the copyright holder. Certainly in my case I've bought far more* ebooks than I would have if I'd not been able to remove DRM from them. And perhaps the experience of publishers who've never used DRM, or have moved to not using DRM would also be good evidence for that.
On the other hand, conviction leads to imprisonment for up to two years... so I don't think I'll be doing any mass distribution.
It is a remarkably strange law. In the UK, mass distribution of the software might be a criminal offence, but downloading the software isn't against the law at all. Using the software is illegal, but only in the same way that copying a CD into iTunes is illegal.
Hmm... I suppose a round-robin or even small tree distribution of the software might, therefore, be legal in the UK. A gives it to B and C. B gives it to D and E and C gives it to F and G. And so on....**
Downloading the software isn't illegal. The "such an extent" in clause (d) would be unnecessary if any amount of distribution was illegal. And any one person has only given it to two people.
It would be a lot simpler if publishers would just wise up and drop DRM completely.
* I didn't buy any DRMed ebooks from (IIRC) 2005 until early 2008, when the scripts first started to appear.
** I'm irresistibly reminded of a certain Tom Lehrer song, but I'm not sure it's suitable for this forum!