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Finland courts rule breaking CSS isn't a crime
What if defeating a copy-protection mechanism was allowed by law if the mechanism was “ineffective”? That's exactly is going on over in Finland, with Finnish courts ruling that two people charged with defeating CSS are not guilty of breaking a copyright law, due to the ease at which CSS is defeated worldwide. Due in part to testimony from expert witnesses, the court agreed that bypassing CSS wasn't anything particularly special:
"[S]ince a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with easy tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge," wrote the court. "Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed.... CSS protection can no longer be held 'effective' as defined in law."
That said, it can't be making the media companies happy. If any other countries follow suit, it could lead to a huge grey area as to what is violating a copyright and what is not when it comes to duplicating media.
One could also argue that if a DRM technique is defeated ever, and the method can be reproduced, that it is “ineffective”. This ruling could easily end up benefiting consumer rights. Then again, it may just end up with many more ridiculous lawsuits surrounding DRM.
"[S]ince a Norwegian hacker succeeded in circumventing CSS protection used in DVDs in 1999, end-users have been able to get with easy tens of similar circumventing software from the Internet even free of charge," wrote the court. "Some operating systems come with this kind of software pre-installed.... CSS protection can no longer be held 'effective' as defined in law."
That said, it can't be making the media companies happy. If any other countries follow suit, it could lead to a huge grey area as to what is violating a copyright and what is not when it comes to duplicating media.
One could also argue that if a DRM technique is defeated ever, and the method can be reproduced, that it is “ineffective”. This ruling could easily end up benefiting consumer rights. Then again, it may just end up with many more ridiculous lawsuits surrounding DRM.
