New DVD copy protection ruling - not in favor of studios!

[Mr.Poindexter]

While not the main part of this article that mainly discusses jailbreaking of phones...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ytech_wguy/2..._wguy_tc3236_2

The relevant excerpts I took from this are:

Apple fought hard against the legalization, arguing that jailbreaking was a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed, saying that jailbreaking merely enhanced the inter-operability of the phone, and was thus legitimate under fair-use rules.

In addition to the jailbreaking exemption, the FCC announced a few other rules that have less sweeping applicability but are still significant:

• Professors, students and documentary filmmakers are now allowed, for “noncommercial” purposes, to break the copy protection measures on DVDs to be used in classroom or other not-for-profit environments. This doesn’t quite go so far as to grant you and me the right to copy a DVD so we can watch it in two rooms of the house, but it’s now only one step away.


This seems that the DMCA has some limitations. Also, enhancing the fair use of the cell phone may pave the way for pushing that ruling towards DVD/BluRay in the future.

[Transepoch]

From what I've seen of that, it really didn't seem to say anything new. Educational use and for interoperability have always been allowable exceptions... as long as you don't tell others how or break Encryption to do it.

I kinda like the 2006 rulemaking better... all we need to do is prove keeping up with the latest AACS keys is brreaking our computers.

[Mr.Poindexter]

Well, it added students and filmmakers to the group for exception #1 and also allowed use not only in the classroom but in other not-for-profit environments. I am guessing they are not going to count our homes as not-for-profit environments?

It did also clarify jailbreaking of smart phones.

[JerryL]

I think at the end of the day anything that continues the Fair Use doctrine should be regarded as a good thing.