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Is DeCSS legal in your country?

13 August 2002 3:20 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny | 6 comments

In recent weeks, since EUCD is getting closer and closer -- the final date is 22nd of December -- we've been studying other countries laws governing distribution and usage of "copy protection circumvention devices", such as DeCSS.

In U.S., it is illegal (according to New York's Appeals Court and Federal Court -- not by Supreme Court yet) to distribute DeCSS code or executables that allow circumventing DVD copy-protection known as CSS.

In EU it will be illegal from 22nd of December.

In Australia, it seems to be illegal as well -- the law was amended in 2001 to say this:

COPYRIGHT ACT 1968 - SECT 116A

Importation, manufacture etc. of circumvention device and provision etc. of circumvention service

(1) Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4), this section applies if:

(a) a work or other subject-matter is protected by a technological protection measure; and
(b) a person does any of the following acts without the permission of the owner or exclusive licensee of the copyright in the work or other subject-matter:
(i) makes a circumvention device capable of circumventing, or facilitating the circumvention of, the technological protection measure;
(ii) sells, lets for hire, or by way of trade offers or exposes for sale or hire or otherwise promotes, advertises or markets, such a circumvention device;
(iii) distributes such a circumvention device for the purpose of trade, or for any other purpose that will affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright;
(iv) exhibits such a circumvention device in public by way of trade;
(v) imports such a circumvention device into Australia for the purpose of:

....etc....

Full text of Australian law can be read from here.

Can anyone provide some accurate information from other countries to us? Non-EU European countries (like Norway)? Canada? Far East? South America? Africa?

Permalink to this article

Final DeCSS case dropped unexpectedly (22 January 2004)

A patch unlocks MovieJack to allow copying of protected DVDs (29 September 2003)

Sweden to outlaw peer-to-peer file swapping (30 July 2003)

Sweden's EUCD proposal online (18 June 2003)

DVD-CCA vs. Bunner goes to California Supreme Court (28 May 2003)

Johansen vs Norway/MPAA round 2 in December (1 April 2003)

European Commission: downloading pirated material should be legal (3 February 2003)

EUCD implementation delayed in most EU countries (17 December 2002)

Prosecution changes charges in DeCSS case -- in middle of the case (14 December 2002)

DVD CCA's boss testifies in Johansen's case (12 December 2002)

Johansen denies charges (9 December 2002)

Finnish government's proposal for EUCD implementation (10 October 2002)

Norwegian DeCSS case delayed (13 August 2002)

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dRD (I hate titles) 13 August 2002 3:36
As an addition, New Zealand has some laws against DeCSS & co, but nothing specific. They're currently implementing changes to the copyright law and in July, 2002 completed a questionnaire among user groups and copyright owners trying to determine what should be done with the current copyright legislation. The summary of these negotiations can be found from here: http://www.med.govt.nz/buslt/int_prop/digital/submissions-summary/submissions-summary-07.html#TopOfPage Petteri Pyyny Webmaster http://AfterDawn.com/ [ + quote]
dRD (I hate titles) 13 August 2002 3:49
And to continue my saga to determine each country's legal point of view on this issue; in Canada it is still perfectly legal to distribute "copy-protection circumvention devices", but that is about to change. Canada will most likely introduce a bill to amend the copyright law by end of this year, which would -- in most likely scenario -- render those "devices and tools" illegal in Canada as well. More about Canadian process to "modernize" their copyright laws can be found from here: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/rp00838e.html Petteri Pyyny Webmaster http://AfterDawn.com/ [ + quote]
dRD (I hate titles) 13 August 2002 4:49
Malaysia: Illegal as well: http://www.bakerinfo.com/apec/malayapec_main.htm Petteri Pyyny Webmaster http://AfterDawn.com/ [ + quote]
dejiray (Inactive) 13 August 2002 9:30
Is there anywhere to dowmload DeCSS [ + quote]
dejiray (Inactive) 13 August 2002 15:04
Thanks for the info,MSVCRT.DLL missing from DeCSS is there an answer for this [ + quote]
dRD (I hate titles) 13 August 2002 15:24
Very basic Microsoft file (Visual C++ runtime library, if I'm not totally incorrect), you should be able to google it. Petteri Pyyny Webmaster http://AfterDawn.com/ [ + quote]