Frustrated Danish citizen Henrik Anderson recently reported himself to anti-piracy outfit Antipiratgruppen for breaking the DRM on more than one hundred legally purchased DVD movies and TV shows for use on his media center.
“As the law is today, you can not have a media center without breaking the law,” he told TorrentFreak.
“When I think of a media center it is a place where you have all your movies, pictures and music together. You can only do that by having a digital copy of the movie.”
Henrik told us that he had taken this action to draw attention to laws which allow him to copy DVDs for his own personal use, but forbid him to remove the DRM in order to do so. In his confession he asked Antipiratgruppen for a response by December 1st, indicating if they are prepared to take action against him.
The group has announced that Henrik will indeed get a response, but didn’t tell him directly, instead preferring to comment via the press.
“It is a political matter, and we have sent it to the Association of Danish Videodistributors so they can consider it. But Henrik Andersen will get a reply by 1st December,” said Antipiratgruppen lawyer Thomas Schlüter to Comon.
Schlüter went on to say that proving this type of infringement is usually impossible.
“Unless people confess, then it’s impossible to prove that they have broken copy protection. We can not break down the door to people’s homes and explore what they have available on their media server,” he said.
Poul Dylov, director for Warner Bros Denmark and chairman at the Association of Danish Videodistributors, said they will have a meeting next week to decide whether to report the matter to the police.
Dylov added they have not previously encountered a similar event, and consider the confession to be a media event, an assessment with which Henrik agrees.
“Of course, until now the film industry has not met the intentions of the law and as the culture minister will not force the film industry [to allow copying by removing DRM] by changing the law, then there must indeed be an awareness of the problem through the media,” he explains.
“But the whole problem lies in a sense with the Minster of Culture who does not follow its own interpretation of the law and the intentions of it. This gives the film industry an easy ride to the detriment of consumers,” he added.
All will be revealed here, on or before December 1st.
