The following e-mail will be sent on your behalf.

 has sent the following story to you from ElectricNews.net.

The story is available from https://electricnews.net/news.html?code=7495090

New EU copyright law meets resistance
Tuesday, May 14 2002
by The Register


Forthcoming EU legislation could criminalise Europeans who circumvent copyright
protection measures, pressure groups have warned. 









Fears that the pending European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) could lead to a
European re-run of the Dmitri Sklyarov prosecution were much in evidence during
the recent Campaign for Digital Rights mini-conference at London's City
University, writes John Leyden.



But Matthew Rippon, of Ipswich law firm Prettys Solicitors, says such fears are
misplaced and that the EUCD will lead to only civil -- not criminal -- court
actions in Europe.  He said the EUCD only requires that the member states
provide "legal protection" for use of and information about Digital Right
Management (DRM) technologies. 



Digital rights management (DRM) technology is a kind of server software designed
to enable the secure distribution of paid content over the Web. DRM technologies
have been developed as a means of protection against the on-line distribution of
commercially marketed material, such as music or video.





"Basically the EUCD creates the means for rights holders to take civil action
to prevent the removal of DRM. Every legal commentator that I have read on the
subject speaks only of civil sanctions," said Rippon. 



Rippon argues that the EUCD is quite different from America's Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA) which imposes "express criminal sanctions" against those
"who destroy rights management information." 



"As a Linux user myself, I am as concerned about the growth of DRM as the next
guy, but this hysteria has to stop. Yes the DMCA's criminal sanctions are evil,
but we've had pro-DRM sanctions on the statute books for almost 15 years (see
Copyright Designs and Patents Act s296) and has the sky fallen in?" 



Martin Keegan, one of the founder members of the Campaign for Digital Rights
(CDR), said whether breaking copyright protection will be criminalised "depends
on the implementation and enforcement in each member state of the EU." 



There are two threads to the directive (A6.1 and A6.2), dealing with banning
circumvention and the devices which assist it, he explained. UK laws already ban
devices, but there have very few uses of this law. 



"It's unlikely that the UK will criminalise circumvention; that'll just be
actionable in the civil courts," said Keegan. However "other European nations
may be softer or harder on the laws and implementation," he added. 



This is ironic since one of the aims of the EUCD is to standardise laws across
Europe, but in practice, the directive may lead to greater diversity. 



So far the EUCD has received little attention but the CDR aims to mobilise
opposition against the directive, which the Recording and Publishing Industries
are heavily lobbying. The CDR is also protesting against music industry plans to
market copy-protected CDs. 



National governments have until 22 December to incorporate the directive in
national legislation.