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It’s not as daft as it sounds. Henrik Anderson, a Danish citizen, turned himself into police, confessing he had broken Danish anti-piracy laws by breaking the Digital Rights Management (DRM) on more than one hundred legally purchased DVDs. He did so because he wants some clarification. It seems, under Danish law, it’s okay to copy, and at same time not okay to copy.
Danish law allows the owner digital media to make private, non-commercial copies of works they own. And, it prohibits owners from making such copies without the rightholder’s consent if the copying circumvents DRM.
Anderson initially sought clarification from the Danish anti-piracy outfit Antipiratgruppen: was he a criminal or not? Antipiratgruppen never got back to Anderson on whether he would be prosecuted, so he took, for him, the next logical step: he turned himself in. Anderson wants a trial so the law can be clearly established.
Anderson may have a broader motive here--drawing attention both to the inconsistency in the law, and to the matter of whose rules he should be following: the laws of Denmark or the dictates of the lawyers for the companies whose DRM is being circumvented.
Image Credit: CzechR/Flickr
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/bartsalisbury
[2] http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-refuses-bait-drm-breaker-goes-to-the-police-091201/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29
[3] http://www.antipirat.dk/
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/big_content_finds_perpetual_access_drmed_content_laughable
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/new_study_drm_incites_piracy
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/are_pirate_downloads_150_times_more_profitable_copyright_holders
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/copyright_law
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/digital_media
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/digital_rights_management
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/login?&commentfragment=comments_top_anchor