EU Copyright Directive 'all bad news'

UK digital rights activists last week published the first in-depth analysis of the proposed European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) - and it's all bad news.

The UK Patent Office published a consultation paper on what has been called the 'European Digital Millennium Copyright Act' on 7 August, responses to which must be submitted to the Patent Office by 31 October.

The proposal is set to become law by Christmas at the latest.

The crux of the critique, released by the Campaign for Digital Rights, is that anyone involved in the legitimate circumvention of copy protection faces major problems unless they are a government authority, a teacher or disabled.

And even if you fall into one of those categories, every time you want to circumvent some form of copy protection you need to get written permission from the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

This effectively means that if you're involved in cryptography and the research of algorithms, you can't break them. "Nothing in the Proposal affords cryptographers any protection against prosecution," says the critique.

Professional musicians could also be beaten with the same stick, because circumvention devices, such as Mini-Disc and Digital Audio Tape recorders, would be made illegal.

"Anyone selling devices ... or possessing them 'in the course of a business' is liable to civil prosecution," said the report.

The Campaign for Digital Rights acknowledged that "it may be possible to argue that since these drives are designed for professional use" they may be exempt. But it added that "there are no get-out clauses in the Proposal that might enable the use of such an argument".

The EUCD would also put the squeeze on software companies that dabble with de-compiling software to make their own products interoperable.

The proposal would also mean that 'circumvention devices', such as the now notorious DeCSS DVD decrypting software, would not just mean hassle from the authorities until you remove it or a link to it from your website, it would become a 'straight to jail for three months' ticket.

Julian Midgley, of the Campaign for Digital Rights, said: "As it stands, the UK implementation of the EUCD will hinder research into cryptography; make criminal current common practices of the music industry; give software companies unwarranted control over the creation of software products interoperable with their own; and provide an inadequate and entirely impractical mechanism for beneficiaries of the Directive's exceptions to obtain access to copyrighted works protected by technological measures."

Along with other groups, the Campaign for Digital Rights is urging the internet community to lobby the Patent Office and Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to make amendments to the proposal before it becomes UK law.

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