DRM prevents you from downloading copies of books you've purchased from online storefronts, but is it legal to bypass DRM to create backups? Cory Doctorow, an expert on the DMCA, weighs in on the subject.
  • Railcar8095@lemm.eeEnglish
    44·
    6 days ago

    From a legal standpoint, is it more illegal to remove DRM or to just download DRM-freed content?

    Meta lawyers think the second is fine, BTW.

    • realcaseyrollins@thelemmy.clubEnglish
      92·
      6 days ago

      I’ve never heard of anyone getting arrested for removing DRM. DRM removal tools are actively sold online with no crackdown. However people keep getting busted here and there for piracy, and piracy sites keep getting shut down.

      I think at the end of the day if the copyright holders are getting paid they don’t really care, and the police cares about piracy way less than they do.

      • Christian@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        I remember reading that the most significant impact DRM has is on security research. Individuals don’t care about bypassing DRM, but an organization is not going to fund anything involving it because of the legal concern. So if a researcher wants to look into a file format behind DRM, or the DRM mechanism itself, being used as an attack vector, that’s not going to get funding.

        The defense that companies will make is that they’re happy to grant exceptions in these cases, but in practice the company will make the exceptions as narrow as possible to err on the side of maintaining as much control as possible, while a research organization will want to err on the side of avoiding potential grey areas, meaning the exceptions are inevitability too restrictive to allow much of anything to come of them.

    • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
      28·
      6 days ago

      There is no “more illegal”. One is illegal, the other is not.

      • Neshura@bookwormstory.socialEnglish
        7·
        6 days ago

        Robbing a store is illegal. Murdering someone is also illegal, however one of the two is for good reasons punished much more harshly.

        • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
          14·
          5 days ago

          It’s not a “take”, it is a fact.

          Stop commenting unless you have evidence to the contrary.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      56·
      6 days ago

      It’s more legal to share military secrets with journalists. Don’t believe me? Wait and see how long that guy ends up spending in jail.