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French Courts Ban DRM on DVDs

Posted by Hemos on from the le-excellent-move dept.

blamanj writes "According to a story on Boing-Boing, the French courts have banned DRM copy-protection on DVDs, because it is a consumer right to make a backup or to change formats (in this case, to VHS). Original story (in French) is also available."

7 of 605 comments (clear)

  1. As a Slashbot... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    As a Slashbot, I'm in two minds about this. On the one hand, this ruling essentially supports what I've been saying all along, that putting DRM on media in the end undermines a consumer's right to do many of the things that ought to be fair use, such as making a backup, making hard-disk based DVD juke boxes, converting to other formats so I can view the movies I paid for on equipment of my choosing, watching DVDs under Lunix, and compressing down to five megs for distribution to millions of anonymous strangers via perfectly legal P2P systems which does not undermine movie companies at all because if they have a business model that relies upon people paying them to make movies then they need to change it because I don't see how that's fair.

    But on the other hand, man, it's the French. I mean, really. They suck. I mean, what are they going to do, surrender to the RIAA (as a Slashbot, I don't know the difference between the RIAA and MPAA, nor am I aware that these American organizations are industry lobbying groups and are therefore completely irrelevent in every sense in the context of this story.)? The French are terrible people, I mean, the other day I read some blog that said that they hate America which they proved by not disarming Saddam Hussein of his limitless WMD arsenal. Had they done so, perhaps I wouldn't have to put Freedom Mustard in my hotdog, which sure doesn't taste as nice as the old French Mustard.

    So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm torn on this one. And, really, there's only one thing I can do about my mixed feelings and the confusion this is causing me: blame the French.

  2. French military rifles for sale. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    French military rifles for sale.
    Great condition.
    Only dropped only.

  3. Re:the MPAA would stop selling DVD's in France... by n1ywb · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm suprised the French haven't banned Hollywood movies already, at least ones that aren't filmed in French...

    --
    -73, de n1ywb
    www.n1ywb.com
  4. Re:I'm so confused! by BostonGunNut · · Score: -1, Troll

    The problem with the French is they think that they could be the center of power in a unified Europe if only they manage to take the US down a notch or two. Everything that they've done in the last ten or so years has been designed to hurt and / or make the US look bad.

  5. Re:In a related matter... by FinchWorld · · Score: 0, Troll
    Good Old French jokes, like

    How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris?

    Never been tried

    How many gears does a french tank have?

    Five. One forward and four reverse

    *Awaits troll rating by the french and insightfull from fellow brits*

    --
    "I may be full of crap about this game, and I may be wrong, and that's fine." -Jack Thompson
  6. Re:for once... by pete6677 · · Score: -1, Troll

    Hey, I totally agree with you here. But when a country which constantly criticizes the US for being intolerant has a policy like this, while claiming to support freedom, it is nothing less than hypocritical. And based on the numerous downmods that my initial post received, the truth hurts to a lot of Slashdotters who are modding based solely on their personal beliefs.

  7. Re:finally some sense. by MBraynard · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ah. So the court had to step in because the consumer was too stupid to read the fine print. Now it makes total sense. Thanks for clearifying.