[ubuntu-uk] Format shifting vs. the Criminal Justice Act

[Tony Pursell]

On 3 August 2011 14:18, Andrew Oakley <andrew at aoakley.com> wrote:

> Slightly off-topic, but there's been a lot of anti-Digital Rights
> Management discussion on here in the past, so here goes...
>
> Today the government announced "sweeping" reforms of copyright law:
> http://www.bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Aug/reforming-ip
>
> Part of that is the legalisation of format shifting; for example, making it
> legal to rip a CD or DVD to an OGG file for personal use so you can play it
> on your portable device. Currently that is illegal in the UK.
>
> As I understand it, the Criminal Justice Act in the early 1990s made it
> illegal to interfere with someone pursuing a legal activity (at the time,
> fox hunting; nowadays, animal experiments).
>
> So if the CJA makes it illegal to interfere with legal activity, and the
> new copyright law makes it legal to copy stuff for personal use, does this
> new law accidentally make most DRM illegal in the UK?
>

Probably not.  I.e if you have a file that you can Format Shift, that will
be legal.  Doesn't necessarily mean the only legal file formats are those
that can be Format Shifted and it would be illegal to supply a file format
that cannot be Format Shifted


>
> --
> Andrew Oakley andrew at aoakley.com
>
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
>
>
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