[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] Commandline switch to enable/disable DVD protection

[Dan Christiansen]

On Wednesday, January 29, 2003, at 03:28 PM, Krister Lagerstrom wrote:

> I guess you live in a EU country, or one of the countries waiting to
> become members? AFAIK, there is a similar law in the EU, so you'll get
> your chance to fight soon. I can't believe the EU passed a similar law,
> if I'd known about it in advance (I really didn't), I would have
> bothered my EU representative a lot about it.

The INFOSOC directive is itself pretty strict, but it leaves some room 
for the countries to implement it. AFAIK Denmark is currently the only 
country which has implemented it.

An NGO organisation named Forbugerrådet, The Consumer Council, has 
written a short guide on what you can do, aided by the Ministry of 
Culture. If you are capable of reading Danish, the guide's at 
http://www.forbrugerraadet.dk/raad/forbruger/alle/cdbrand/

Otherwise, here's my translation of it:

You may:
- Copy a work if the artist or copyright holder allows it.
- Copy an original CD/DVD borrowed by a friend.
- Copy a CD/DVD borrowed at the library.
- Copy a CD and play it at a private party (incl. parties at other 
people's houses).
- Copy a CD and play it at the office at work.
- Copy a CD/DVD for use in the car, the boat, in a discman, the pc or 
an MP3-player.
- Circumvent or break a code, an encryption or a copy protection if it 
is necessary to play the movie or listen to the music in privat. This 
could be to be able to watch a DVD on your Linux PC.
- Break a DVD region code.

You may not:
- Copy a copied CD or a copied DVD, if the copy was either borrowed or 
given to you by someone else.
- Copy a work downloaded off the internet, if they have been sent out 
without the consent of the artist or the copyright holder.
- Give a copied CD/DVD away.
- Lend, swap or sell copied CD's and DVD's.
- Forward a digitally delivered work via your email.
- Break a copy protection to produce a copy of a music CD or DVD movie.

The Ministry of Culture also has a page on http://www.kum.dk/sw5335.asp 
about copy protection. It's quite long, but some important points are:

- The new rules only cover actions relevant to the copyright. Private 
viewing of a work is not relevant to the copyright, and therefore not 
covered by them.
- You may circumvent a copy protection if it prevents you from using a 
legally acquired work. You may not circumvent a copy protection to 
produce a copy of a protected work.
- It is up to the copyright holders to ensure that the users are not 
forced/allowed to break the copy protection. (The wording is a bit 
unclear here.)
- If a CD cannot be played in a CD-player, it is to be considered a 
flawed product, and the normal rules apply to it.
- THE RULES DO NOT MEAN THAT DEVELOPING AND DISTRIBUTING OPEN SOURCE 
SOFTWARE WHICH ENSURES THAT PLAYING AND USING DVD'S AND OTHER MEDIA IS 
POSSIBLE, BECAUSE THIS FORM OF SOFTWARE HAS OTHER, NON-INSIGNIFICANT 
(yes, it really says that) MEANS THAN TO CIRCUMVENT A COPY-PROTECTION. 
HOWEVER, DEVELOPING, DISTRIBUTION, ETC., OF SOFTWARE WHICH HAS 
CIRCUMVENTION OF COPY PROTECTION AS IT'S MAIN TARGET IS ILLEGAL. 
(Pardon the caps, but this seems important ;)
- (some legal stuff)
- It is now clear that cryptology research is not hindered by the rules 
of copy protection.

They end up stating that one should remember that the new rules aren't 
intended to keep people from using legally acquired media, and that in 
the future, copy protection should be made in a way which allows people 
to make copies for themselves.

I hope you find this interesting. If I were to draw a conclusion from 
the MPlayer is clearly legal in Denmark (at least the DeCSS is), but 
MEncoder is much more questionable. I find it much more worrying that 
the new rules explicitly ban parallel importing.

- Dan Christiansen