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Norway Considers New Copyright Laws

Posted by Zonk on from the i-want-my-mp3s dept.

bizpile writes "The Norwegian government is considering a change to copyright laws that would make it illegal to rip a CD to MP3s when copy protection is in place on the CD. However, you would still be allowed to copy from one CD to another regardless of copy protection. Gisle Hannemyr, of the University of Oslo's Department of Informatics, responded by saying "We are going to be a nation of lawbreakers if this law is passed in its current form." The new proposal would allow fines and a maximum penalty of three years in prison for violating copyrights and engaging in computer piracy."

4 of 294 comments (clear)

  1. Better explanation, (From the article) by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 4, Informative
    The amendment, which requires parliament's approval, would make it illegal to crack security codes on DVD and CDs or to provide software or hardware for doing so, a news release said. It would still be legal for a person to make a copy of their own CD or DVD for private use, even if that means cracking the code, as long as it was being copied onto the same digital medium and not onto another one.

    "For example, a CD's (security code) could be cracked to play a recording on a car stereo, since a CD-player would be seen as an appropriate medium," the news release said. "But the security code could not be cracked to copy the recording onto an MP-3 player, since such a device would not be seen as an appropriate for a CD."

    --
    I do security
  2. Norway is bound to do this by Husgaard · · Score: 5, Informative
    This is sad but true: Although not an EU member, Norway is bound to implement the InfoSoc directive in their laws.

    And if you wonder what the InfoSoc directive is: It is basically EUs copy of the DMCA, only a bit worse.

  3. Re:CD to CD to MP3 by shigelojoe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, the article says that you can't transfer music from CDs to MP3 *players*. So, not only can you still rip the CD to MP3 and play it on your computer, you could also rip the CD to AAC or Ogg Vorbis and put on a "portable music player" which isn't limited to only MP3. Technicalities, yes, but not violating the word of the law -- assuming, of course, that the author of the article correctly characterized the content of the legislation, which almost never happens, regardless of the country.

  4. Same penalty as theft by Aewyn · · Score: 3, Informative

    IANAL, but a quick search seems to indicate[1] that the penalty for theft is the same as in your quote: fines and up to three years in prison.

    [1] http://lovdata.no/all/hl-19020522-010.html#257 (in Norwegian)