Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Is it not clearly implied by the name "disabled access to eBooks"? You may speculate that you're allowed to do it, but the simple fact is that nobody will know until a test case goes to court. I think, though, that it's unwise to state as a "fact" that it is permitted, because you cannot know that for certain. You think it's allowed; I think it's not allowed; neither of us knows for sure.
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The Sony vs Universal case, a.k.a. "
the Betamax case" ruled that potentially copyright-infringing tech is legal if it as substantial non-infringing use. In the case of "read aloud" functions, making books accessible to the blind is non-infringing; that makes the technology to read them aloud, and to break anti-readaloud DRM, legal.
In order to prosecute for copyright infringement, the IP owner would have to move against the individual end user, claiming s/he made an illegal copy. Since format shifting for personal use is legal in the US (that was the non-infringing point of the Betamax case: you can timeshift TV shows to watch them later, & format shift them to your own device), there's no infringement.
Both the DRM-breaking tech, and the act of breaking that kind of DRM, are legal. (IMHO. IANAL.)