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Originally Posted by pdurrant
I went to look this up, as I thought that in the US any violation of section 1201 or 1202 of the DMCA was a criminal matter. But (IANAL) it seems that violations are only criminal if they are done "willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain".
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
In the UK, the relevant legislation is the amended Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 Part 7, section 296.
In particular, sections 296ZA and especially 296ZB, where it seems it's an offence to distribute de-DRM software "to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the copyright owner", and the penalties are not more than three months on conviction in a Magistrates Court, or two years in High Court.
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Thanks for the info. As a fellow occupant of Airstrip One, this is a concern!
We appear to be in (what seems to be to be) a crazy situation, where you are at risk of imprisonment for a criminal offence if you purchase a book and strip the DRM to read it more comfortably, while being only at risk of a civil suit for not paying at all and downloading from the darknet.
It's surprising because a lot of people on the site speak blithely about stripping DRM, but are much more cagey about downloading without paying. Perhaps they fear moral censure more than the law.