Copyright Regulators Reject Plan for Legal DVD and Game Cracking

  • The U.S. Copyright Office reauthorized circumvention of certain copyright encryption techniques for jailbreaking mobile phones and e-books, but the group remained unmovable when it came to game-console modifications and copying DVDs for personal use.
  • “The ruling hands yet another loss to digital rights groups who are waging an ongoing campaign to chip away at the scope of a law that limits citizens’ rights by treating copyright owners’ encryption techniques as sacrosanct,” reports Wired.
  • Every three years, groups can submit requests to the copyright office to change aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This year, the regulators argued that controls on DVDs and consoles are necessary to prevent piracy.
  • “The record demonstrated that access controls on gaming consoles protect not only the console firmware, but the video games and applications that run on the console as well. The evidence showed that video games are far more difficult and complex to produce than smartphone applications, requiring teams of developers and potential investments in the millions of dollars,” the copyright regulators state.
  • Regulators backed the Motion Picture Association of America in keeping DVD duplication illegal. Users can, however, legally circumvent encryption “to make use of short portions of the motion pictures for the purpose of criticism or comment,” regulators say.
  • They are allowing jailbreaking for smartphones, but not for tablets. “When the only difference between a Galaxy Note and a Android tablet is an inch and a radio that can handle voice and data channels, it’s a pretty odd line to draw,” Wired writes.
  • While some consider e-books “tablets,” authorities allow circumvention for e-books to enable read-aloud functions for the sight impaired.

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