Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Forgive me for saying so, Jon, but in the United States, if you break DRM you are a criminal, and you don't even have the excuse with the MobiPocket format that the "disability exemption" to the DCMA applies - the MobiPocket Reader has no features such as reading aloud which are disabled by DRM.
One may argue that the DCMA is a bad law, but until and unless it is overturned by the courts, it is the law, and if you break it you are committing a crime.
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Actually, the law is a little more subtle than that. The act of breaking the DRM is
not illegal. They left that up to the traditional fair-use defenses and exemptions.
Instead, they made it illegal to
- Produce DRM-breaking tools
- Tell others how to break DRM, or where to get DRM-breaking tools
- Reverse-engineer or otherwise do the work of figuring out how to break the DRM
Actually
doing the breaking of the DRM is no different from any previous format-shifting with respect to legality. It's just that you have to somehow manage it without violating the things that are illegal.
You'll note, for example, that if someone not covered by the DMCA (a non-US citizen not resident in or located in the US, for example) produces DRM breaking tools, they haven't violated US law. No jurisdiction. And if I somehow (psychically, perhaps) figure out how to get those tools, and use them, I'm still in the same old never-really-tested-in-court but
probably OK grey-zone as before.
On the other hand if I tell someone where to get those very same tools, or do any work on those tools, or do the reverse engineering needed to build those tools in the first place... Well, since I'm a US citizen and I reside in the US any of those acts would be illegal under the DMCA.
And it would be a felony with major major penalties, too.
Using the tools, on the other hand, doesn't cause any DMCA violation at all. That's a plain old copyright question, where the answer is "it depends."
I really hope (and pray
) that we get some sanity in this area -- the current legal situation is totally hosed. And I wish a big fat
for the bozos who voted the DMCA into law in the first place.