Re: [Fsfe-uk] APIG Inquiry into DRM tech.

[MJ Ray]

Alex Hudson <address@hidden>
> On Mon, 2005-12-05 at 23:55 +0000, MJ Ray wrote:
> >  1. establishment of "fair circumvention" when DRM is being used
> >     to restrict what should be fair dealing or other vital acts
> >     - you can't make DRM systems "fail safe" but you can give some
> >     hope of recovering after they "fail closed";
> 
> Hm. I'm not sure what I think of this. Most of my arguments are against
> having any sort of legal protection of DRM systems: going down this road
> would infer to them that having a list of exceptions would fix the
> technical issues with DRM.

I'll try to make it clear that it's not a solution. It's impossible
to solve the problems posed by DRM. All "fair circumvention" gives
is a small hope that we don't lose access to all our culture.

I realise that fair dealing is limited. It's also not directly
part of the questions, which is why I mention other vital acts
too, such as use on accessible devices, or backing up.
Backing up computer programs is enabled by section 50A of the
Copyright Designs and Patents Act... getting a similar permission
for DRM'd works would be good if marginal, don't you think?

> >  2. legislation to ensure that DRM system owners are held responsible
> >     for computer misuse (Sony?), privacy invasion and monopoly effects
> >     resulting from their DRM systems, which will help limit distortion;
> 
> Good idea. I'm not sure how you could word that, though. [...]

Me neither. I'd probably suck at drafting legislation, so I'll
stick to drafting the suggested aims. ;-)

-- 
MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/  irc.oftc.net/slef  Jabber/SIP ask