On Tuesday 28 November 2006 07:11, Steven H. McCown wrote:
> As an FYI, the U.S. Copyright Office relaxed its rules, somewhat, the other
> day. Breaking cell phone locks and DVD encryption is legal -- but only for
> certain purposes. You can take your phone to a new carrier and make DVD
> *clips* for educational exercises -- but that doesn't include DVD ripping
> to your iPod.
Maybe. It's not clear to me that the Librarian's ruling has any real effect,
because it's not clear from the statute that the Librarian has the authority
to legalize the creation or distribution of anti-circumvention tools. If
those tools remain illegal, then ripping clips from a DVD is still
effectively illegal, even for educational purposes.
If, on the other hand, this ruling legalizes the tools, then whether or not
ripping DVDs to watch on your iPod is legal turns into a discussion about
whether or not format shifting qualifies as Fair Use, because circuvention is
explicitly allowed for Fair Use purposes (1201(c) of 17 USC). If format
shifting is Fair Use, then ripping DVDs to watch on your iPod is legal. If
format shifting isn't Fair Use, then ripping CDs to listen to on your iPod is
also illegal.
It will be very interesting to see how all of this shakes out over the next
few years,
Shawn.
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