[NatCh]

Originally Posted by tompe

What is an item that breaks "copyright law of DRM"?

That's a slight mis-quote, the original reads "copyright law or DRM." This means that, to the extent possible, we will not allow posting of infringing material, nor instructions showing someone how to break DRM or other unlawful acts (whatever those may be) or requests for instructions on how do do such things.

Originally Posted by tompe

And is it the law in Canada you are talking about here? How is the first paragraph compatible with the later observation that the law is different in each country?

Well, obviously, we have to comply with Canadian law as far as the contents of the forum go. The "other countries may vary" thing is mostly aimed at works that might be in the Public Domain in Canada, but not in others, which would be legal to host in Canada, but not download in say, the U.S.

We do recognize that there some countries don't have restrictions on removal of DRM (or copyright infringement, or any number of other things for that matter), and while we're not going to pretend that it ain't so, we're also not going to host detailed discussions of how to remove it, tools to remove it, or direct links to any of the above (or anything that falls in that general category).

We're being a bit over cautious on that particular point because lawyers (and the people who employ them) are particularly nasty and tenacious on the subject.

This does not, however, extend to the discussion, in non-specific terms of DRM removal or even copyright infringement, nor to how things are or ought to be. Nor does it preclude discussion of or even instructions for the use of tools in that can be used for activities that aren't illegal. For instance, ConvertLIT was mentioned specifically: it can be used to remove DRM, but that's not it's sole use, so discussion of its use, even specific instructions isn't off limits, so long as the instructions aren't on how to remove DRM. If those instructions happen to provide sufficient information that someone could figure out on their own the specifics of using the tool to break DRM, well that's not something we really can police, nor do we intend to even try.

There's enough to worry about that is specifically illegal, or which will get us into trouble to fuss about such indirect things.

Originally Posted by tompe

And the principle used to get to these policies are not visible.

They're not explicitly spelled out within the policy, no, and perhaps they could be more clearly stated, but they're basically implied in the first paragraph:

MobileRead does not condone or support the use of this web site to break the law. This means that, to the extent possible, we will not allow posting of instructions showing someone how to break the law or requests for such instructions.

But, to put them in more explicit terms: we're trying to comply with the law in as much as we're able, and also trying to avoid anything that might get us shut down, or even just on the pointy end of any Cease and Desist notices.



EDIT: Plus what DaleDe said.