Lots of interest in a new decision from the Helsinki District Court, which has ruled the copy-protection system for DVDs, known as CSS, is not an effective TPM and therefore circumventing it does not constitute infringement.
Finland Court on Effective Copyright Protection
2 Comments
Recent Posts
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 257: Lisa Given on What Canada Can Learn From Australia’s Youth Social Media Ban 
Court Ordered Social Media Site Blocking Coming to Canada?: Trojan Horse Online Harms Bill Clears Senate Committee Review 
An Illusion of Consensus: What the Government Isn’t Saying About the Results of its AI Consultation 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 256: Jennifer Quaid on Taking On Big Tech With the Competition Act’s Private Right of Access 
Government Says There Are No Plans for National Digital ID To Access Services
This sounds like good news for consumers (and just plain practical, which it is) but in reality this legal decision is completely back-asswards. It’s not an effective protection mechanism because it’s easily bypassed with available means, so cracking it is legal. But in order for it to become easily bypassed (and hence legal) it first needs to be cracked, which is illegal. That’s right kids; today’s word is “catch 22”!
This is good news, as the new copyright law passed in Finland recently
gave the digital media corporations the power to decide how, when and with
what equipment the consumers would be allowed to use their content – since
all “strong protection” methods were made illegal to circumvent under threat
of rather harsh punishment.
Guess the Court decided in favor of consumers instead of bending over to the
will of our corrupt Ministry of Culture that passed these measures in very
shady manner to the law.