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Re: DRM legal advice



On Wed Mar 04 09:32, Jonathan Wiltshire wrote:

> get_iplayer (renamed to get-iplayer for Debian naming restrictions)
> avoids this by fetching programmes through the iPhone channel in
> reasonable quality and saving them to disk. However, this also evades
> the DRM protection so the user is free to keep the files for as long as
> (s)he likes, which obviously isn't what the BBC wishes.

AIUI the BBC service provides 3 viewing channels:

   - flash (online streamed only)
   - Windows client (DRM restricted)
   - iPhone client (no restrictions)

If you were removing the DRM on the windows channel I would certainly
say that was against the law in DMCA/EUCD countries. In the case of the
iPhone downloads there is (AFAIK) no restriction on the download other
than claiming to be an iPhone, so I don't think you can be said to have
circumvented an effective technical protection measure.

One might claim that the act of claiming to be an iPhone when one is not
would count as such a circumvention, but I don't believe merely checking
the user-agent string (or whatever) would count as an 'effective
technical protection measure'.

Obviously IANAL etc.

Matt

P.S. if you don't upload it to Debian proper, consider contacting the
debian-multimedia guys.

-- 
Matthew Johnson

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