<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 2:27 PM, Johnny <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jarpublic@gmail.com">jarpublic@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div><div></div><div class="h5">On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 4:41 PM, Allen Edwards <<a href="mailto:allen.p.edwards@gmail.com">allen.p.edwards@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> In the US it is legal to make a backup copy for personal use under "fair<br>
> use". It is illegal to defeat copy protection. This is the source of the<br>
> ambiguity that is quoted. However, simply decoding something that is copy<br>
> protected cannot be illegal or every DVD player on the market would be<br>
> illegal. So it has to go to the end use. If you decode something that is<br>
> copy protected for the purpose of selling it, that is clearly illegal. If<br>
> you decode copy protected material for a legal use, like watching a movie or<br>
> making a backup copy for your own use, that cannot be illegal. I am not<br>
> a lawyer although I did take a law class at Stanford a long time ago. This<br>
> is not a legal opinion, it is my opinion.<br>
> Allen<br>
<br>
</div></div>This is not how the law is currently interpreted. The digital<br>
millinneum copyright act forbids the circumvention of an encryption<br>
without the authorization of the copyright holder. Commercial DVD<br>
player have authorization to circumvent the CSS encryption used on<br>
DVDs and there are certain exemptions for hardware manufacturers. The<br>
software used in Linux to decrypt DVDs does not have this<br>
authorization and thus is illegal to use to decrypt a DVD. That is why<br>
deCSS is not included with mythtv and not distributed with most Linux<br>
distributions in the US. There is an allowance for exceptions to this<br>
law that are decided upon by the library of congress every three<br>
years, however, as of yet I don't believe there have been exceptions<br>
made for DVDs.<br>
<br>
So as bazaar as it sounds, it is perfectly legal to backup your DVD<br>
but it is not legal to circumvent the encryption. So if that is<br>
necessary to backup your DVD then you have no legal way to do it.<br>
However, it is not a crime unless you are doing it for commercial<br>
purposes. If it is for personal use then the rights holder has to<br>
resort to civil litigation. It seems highly unlikely that anybody is<br>
going to come after joe sixpack for backing up or watching their own<br>
DVDs on a Linux machine. But they certainly may come after somebody<br>
who is distributing software to do such. Hence Slysoft is located "on<br>
the beautiful island Antigua."<br>
<br>
All of this seems obviously absurd to us lay people, and much of it<br>
hasn't been tested in court. It sure would be interesting to see if<br>
someone fought this in court. There are definitely some gray areas<br>
where fair use allows certain acts but the only way of actually doing<br>
that act violates the DMCA.<br>
</blockquote></div><br><div><br></div><div>Let me see if I have this straight.</div><div><br></div><div>Backing up my copy of American Grafetti is legal but it is against the law to actually do. But, breaking this law is not a crime.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I am going to go have another beer. I understand beer.</div><div><br></div><div>Allen</div><div><br></div>