A select committee of the New Zealand government has been studying possible amendments to the NZ copyright act. On Friday, the committee issued a report along with recommendations. The 75 page document may be found here. News reports on the bill are mixed, see here.
New Zealanders seem particularly ripped about provisions on format shifting for music and the apparent ability of music copyright owners to opt-out of the ability to make format changes through labeling. There are no provisions on video. Among the more interesting provisions are ones stating that technologically required transient copying does not violate the reproduction right, amendments to the definition of service provider, TPM requirements, and changes in the notice and take down provisions.
"technologically required transient copying does not violate"
ReplyDeleteSo this means that if it is necessary to circumvent a TPM in order to view the DVD (via any number of ephemeral intermediate copies), that this is permitted (does not violate DMCA/EUCD/NZequiv.).
Given that the viewer necessarily already has sufficient information to decrypt a DVD, it would be daft to suggest that it would be a violation to decrypt the DVD using codes obtained via means unintended by the publisher.
So, here we have it: there is no such thing as circumvention for the purposes of viewing, only for the purpose of making unauthorised copies/derivatives (except transients).
DMCA/EUCD - toilet papering over the cracks in the three hundred year old coprolite that is copyright.