[clug] [OT] EMI "copy control" on Linux

[Sam Couter]

Alex Satrapa <grail at goldweb.com.au> wrote:
> But we do have the right to make backup copies, to protect ourselves 
> from damage to media.

I don't believe that's true. I did research this once upon a time and
came to the conclusion that all of my backups are illegal. I maintain
that I have the moral right to make backups (after all, I'm purchasing a
licence to the work, and if I go back to the CD shop and say "My copy is
scratched, I'd like it replaced for the cost of the media" they'll
politely say "Fuck off"), so I will continue to make (not distribute)
copies of music and/or games whether it's legal or not. I will also rip
them to OGG files on my computer, and maybe one day I'll have a portable
player to copy them to also.

I can't find anything relevant on AustLII right now. The term "backup"
seems to refer mostly to backup tapes that people seek during discovery.
It won't bring up cases regarding backup copies of copyrighted works,
only cases in which evidence of infringement is on those backup tapes.

But here's something scary I found at AustLII:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/cases/cth/federal%5fct/unrep4489.html

Dude reverse engineers the AutoCAD hardware dongle and starts selling
his own version of the dongle for way cheap. Note that he does not have
access to the code running on the dongle, nor does he disassemble the
dongle. He uses a small program to poke stuff at the dongle, and an
oscilloscope to view the results.

AutoDesk sues for copyright infringement because the dude's program is
functionally identical to theirs, therefore is substantially similar and
an infringement on their copyrights.

AutoDesk wins (!) on the basis of their claims in a Victorian court.

Luckily, the dude won his appeal to the Federal Court.

NOTE: I have radically simplified the facts of this case to those I feel
are most relevant. I'm not a lawyer either, nor do I have any legal
training.

And the other interesting case I found:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/disp.pl/au/cases/cth/federal%5fct/2001/1719.html

This judge actually saw the common-sense answer to the question of
whether decompression of data and storage in RAM constitutes a "copy"
when playing a DVD.

> I'll make a point of obnoxiously complaining that, "this isn't a real 
> CD... I want this music on CD please" next time I'm out buying music.

The answer (if it's not simply a blank stare or an assertion that any
12cm polycarbonate and aluminium disc is a CD) will be "It's not
available on CD".
-- 
Sam "Eddie" Couter  |  mailto:sam at couter.dropbear.id.au
Debian Developer    |  mailto:eddie at debian.org
                    |  jabber:sam at teknohaus.dyndns.org
OpenPGP fingerprint:  A46B 9BB5 3148 7BEA 1F05  5BD5 8530 03AE DE89 C75C
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