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German Library Allowed To Crack Copy Protection

Posted by timothy on from the clashing-aims dept.

AlexanderT writes "The EU Directive 2001/29/EU (also known as the European Copyright Directive) has made it "a criminal offence to break or attempt to break the copy protection or access control systems on digital content such as music, videos, eBooks, and software". Since today, at least in Germany there is one notable exception: The Deutsche Bibliothek, Germany's national library and bibliographic information center, has received a "license to copy", i.e. the official authorization to crack and duplicate DRM-protected e-books and other digital media such as CD-Audio and CD-Roms. The Deutsche Bibliothek achieved an agreement with the German Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the German Booksellers and Publishers Association after it became obvious that copy protections would not only annoy teenage school boys, but also prohibit the library from fulling its legal mandate to collect, process and bibliographic index important German and German-language based works."

7 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Right to read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think this would be a brilliant time to point of this essay, the right to read!
    http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read .html

    It'll take you 5 minutes to get through but I think everyone should check it out :)

    1. Re:Right to read by nkh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But what happen when 10 years from now I want to listen to my copy-protected CD and can't do it anymore because it is protected?

      I don't want unlimited rights to the content, I want unlimited rights to listening to the content, and this is what I bought...

    2. Re:Right to read by TheOldFart · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What if tomorrow DVD's are replaced by some other technology? Within a few years you no longer can find a DVD player to replace yours that just died. Now you have a collection of DVDs which contain the material you paid a license to watch. Your options are to pay again to have something you already have and paid for or to break the law and copy the data to a new medium. Why is that a crime?

    3. Re:Right to read by hkmwbz · · Score: 5, Insightful
      "You bought the right to drive your own car, not to build an exact copy of this car and sell it."
      Really! So I only have the right to drive my own car? I can't modify it? I can't change the tires when needed? Fill gasoline?

      Building an exact copy of the car and selling it would be more like creating CDs with someone else's copyrighted work, and selling them. But that's not what I'm talking about at all. I am simply talking about the right to do with my own CD as I damn well please.

      You really should go back to analogy school and get your shit sorted out. Your analogies suck.

      --
      Clever signature text goes here.
  2. Just goes to show... by m50d · · Score: 5, Insightful

    how wrong these laws really are. If this law is preventing the library fulfilling its legal obligations, perhaps this shows it was a badly thought-out law?

    --
    I am trolling
  3. But how will they do it? by jlar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    At least in the Danish implementation of the EU copyright directive it is illegal to produce, import, spread, sell, lease out, advertise for or in a commercial setting own products or components that are subject to advertised as usable for circumventing technological protection measures, only have limited use besides circumvention of technological protection measures or is primarily produced to make it possible to circumvent technological protection measures.

    The German implementation is probably similar. My question is: How can the German Library break the copy protection when it is illegal to produce tools to do it?

  4. In Sweden...:D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Haha funny. A ruling from a couple of week ago in Sweden made it legal for anyone to crack programs and other schemes as long as it is for personal use. You are also allowed to distribute the cracked software to personal friends.

    (This is the case against the cracker group DOD, Drink or Die. While the American members all got jailed the Swedish member (who actually did most of the cracking) was freed of all charges)

    And yes, Sweden is also in the EU but thankfully our local laws can override BS laws like this (i think)