Hi All, I can not give you sources, but can confirm some thoughts and explain some confusion. The licenses are worded quite awkwardly, for one! That generally, state the status quo for the average user what ever that may be. They also have lines in them like if parts of the license are illegal it does not affect the rest and so on. After, saying that most licenses do not respect the rights of certain groups! Take normal printed material, for example! As a student in Germany you can copy part of books for academic purposes! Academics can also publish parts of books in their works, though the copyright notice in books said this can be done! So having said the above there are "special interest groups" that can do certain things that the average person can not do! Now, you have the right to make backup copies of your DVDs. Now, try finding software that keeps the DRM and copy protection intact. Most software can copy these DVDs normally can break the copy protection and DRM. This kind of software is illegal in Germany. So how do you create your legal backup copies! without "breaking the law". You can not. Now, here comes the really hard part. If you do crack the DRM and copy protection will you be prosecuted! Well, here in Germany there is the policy is it of public interest the persecute you! Well, if you do crack the DRM for your own personal use, is this of public interest, ---> NO! So, you have effectively broken the law, but it will not be pursued! Now, take a look at software! When you buy say MS Office you have the right to use it, but effectively you can resell it even if you remove it from your hardware. So if you do sell it to a friend you effectively broken the law. Yet, it is accepted. For all nit pickers, the laws may have changed at least this was true, years, decades ago! So, basically it all comes down to this. Yes, it is illegal to remove DRM, yet it is very likely that you will not be persecuted for doing so as long as you use said copies for your own personal use. It does remain illegal and tolerated. There is also no guarantee that you will not! You would be surprised how many laws you break in everyday life that you are not aware of! regards Keith. Am 22.03.2011 um 04:04 schrieb a@aboq.org:
On Monday, 21st March 2011 at 22:04:47 (GMT +0100), Walter van Holst wrote:
Thank you, Travis, for debunking that myth that removing DRM from your own e-books is somehow "illegal". I was too infuriated when I originally read that absurd assertion in Marcelo's post, to even bother to reply to it. ;-)
Well, I am sorry to burst your bubble, but for most European jurisdictions Marcelo's assessment is right. Your mileage may vary outside the EU.
Can you please direct me to an authoritative source that confirms what you're saying? The Internet is like the Bible: you can find supportive statements in it for just about any assertion anyone cares to make, even if those assertions should contradict one another. I'm sure our current discussion will end up in Google's search engines, and 2 years from now, someone might pull up your and Marcelo's quote to "prove" that doing XYZ is illegal, while someone else might pull up Travis's or my quote, to "prove" that doing XYZ is legal.
So, can you please give us an authoritative source that says that removing DRM from your own e-books solely for your private use is "illegal"? By "authoritative" I don't mean journalistic or blog articles, let alone forum squabbles -- which is the only reference material I came up with when I tried researching the topic using Google. Thanks!
PS: When you mention geography, that's another interesting aspect. If you buy an e-book from the US Amazon site, do different laws apply than if you buy it from a European Amazon site? Is it the location of the seller's site that decides these things, or is it the location of the *buyer* of the e-book? Or is it neither, and it's really the *citizenship* of the buyer of the e-book that is decisive, regardless of in which country the buyer may currently be located? I happen to live in a city bordering 3 different countries, and I can just *walk* into a different country within minutes. If I buy an Amazon book using my iPhone while hiking (or biking) in a neighbouring country, do I need to track on the territory of which country I happened to be located while I purchased that e-book? If I happen to carry a laptop with me and remove the DRM while visiting a neighbouring country, have I (supposedly) broken the law of the country that I visited, or of the country where I live, or both countries, or the US law where the US Amazon site that sold me the book for US dollars resides, or the law of all countries, or the law of no country? The questions are endless. At least when it comes to *web hosting*, the legality is clear: the contents on a web server are governed by the geographical location of that web server. It all gets a lot blurrier with "mobile products" such as e-books, doesn't it?!
-- Yours, Alex. www.aboq.org
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