DRM Breaker Reports Himself To Anti-Piracy Group
Written by enigmax on November 03, 2009A citizen is so tired of his country’s copyright laws he has reported himself to an anti-piracy group. In his written confession, the ‘pirate’ admits to copying more than one hundred purchased movies and TV shows for his own use – legal in Denmark – but breaking DRM on the same is an act forbidden under Danish law.
In his self-written mass-infringement notice entitled “Notification of digital copies of legally bought DVD movies,” frustrated citizen Henrik Andersen confesses all to an anti-piracy outfit, in the hope of sparking debate on the catch 22 situation he and other Danish consumers find themselves in.
“I’ve started this because i don’t want to be a criminal,” Henrik told TorrentFreak.
“As the law is today, you can not have a media center without breaking the law. 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.”
“In my media center I have digital copies of my legally purchased DVD movies,” he writes in his confession. “Overall, I suppose I’ve made digital copies of approx. 100 films and 10 seasons of TV series,” he added.
On the surface this should be fine, since Danish copyright law allows for the private, non-commercial copying of purchased DVDs.
12.–(1) Anyone is entitled to make or have made, for private purposes, single copies of works which have been made public if this is not done for commercial purposes. Such copies must not be used for any other purpose.
Unfortunately the law does not allow for the circumvention of the DRM on the disks in order to do so.
75.c –(1) It is not permitted to circumvent effective technological measures without the consent of the rights holder.
“Since the above copying is a violation of Danish law, I would therefore like to declare myself in violation of section 75 of the copyright law,” Henrik told Antipiratgruppen.
While previously acknowledging this catch 22 situation, Denmark’s Ministry of Culture felt that the situation would shortly rectify itself.
“…it is expected that in future copy protection will be designed in such a way that it will be possible to take one or more copies for personal use, and this is certainly the intention of the law,” they wrote.
However, as Henrik points out, while this might be the government’s plan, the movie industry has failed to live up to this vision, hence his intended piracy martyrdom to draw attention to the issue.
“As the culture minister sees no reason to change the law, she must, in my opinion, not understand the problem, therefore I choose to confess to you, to see whether you are prepared to get the legislation tested in court,” says Henrik as he concludes his confession.
Henrik has given Antipiratgruppen until December 1st to respond. Even given a prosecution on a plate, it’s extremely unlikely they will take him up on his offer.
Previously: AFACT v iiNet: – Pirates Will Be Cut Off With a Court Order
Next: Millions of File-Sharers Hide Their Identities Online
56 Responses
um, why?
DRM is just another reason why people pirate movies and music. Copyright holders are forcing consumers to rent their products at full retail price.
lolz…
Quote: 75.c –(1) It is not permitted to circumvent effective technological measures without the consent of the rights holder.
Endquote.
That’s a self-defeating law.
If it can be circumvented, it is by definition no longer effective.
@4 yes, absolutely. Other countries have this same term “effective” in their legislation too, even though all DVD DRM gets broken, one way or another.
#4 (Jonathan Barel) makes a great point, though it’s all a game of redefinition of words, something I would expect the anti-piracy types to do in a courtroom.
For instance, CSS, the DVD encryption scheme, is effective. Why? It’s effective because the scheme is currently in active use. You are right in that it is broken, and you are right in that it is not a deterrent anymore, but effective means either “of great effect” (’this medication is effective’) or “currently in effect” (’this rule effective as of 2009-10-03′). If the Law has no definition for “effective”, then it’s time to add one.
And now to stop playing devil’s advocate and say this: if that law is modified, Denmark should start pushing for the US, EU etc. to do the same, because libdvdcss to play DVDs under Unix OSes is a pain to get in Linux distributions due to all these DRM circumvention laws…
Is this guy certain that all 100± DVDs and 10 season of shows were in fact DRM protected ?
I have a pile of DVDs at my house and none of them are DRM protected.
CSS is a joke. A modern computer can brute force the encryption in a matter of seconds. How can that be considered effective?
It’s stupid to think I am technically doing something illegal by having libdvdcss on my Ubuntu box.
Since when do legitimate consumers expect copyright laws to make sense? They only make sense to the corporations to protect their profits, written by the corporations and these corporations brainwash the ignorant public and ignorant lawmakers so they get written in to law and enforced by taxpayers themselves.
Yes. It all makes sense.
Drm?? thats not even on dvd’d anymore because it was not effective…
@7
Thats because yours are all copies already – or porn…
Or more likely copies of porn
I’ve pirated a thousand movies or so…
“It is not permitted to circumvent effective technological measures without the consent of the rights holder.”
CSS is not effective because I still have to find a DVD that can not be copied.
If this guy ever gets to court it will be just another corporate show trial. Just like PTB and those poor souls in the States that are internal destitute because of corporate greed.
It’s all a word game…
Your telling me that, say for example I walk up to a property with a fence that has a sign posted “No Trespassing Private Property” but yet the gate is wide open, I can just ignore the sign and walk through the property? Obviously the fence or the sign was ineffective….
Thats how ridiculous this whole argument is…
The industry needs to spell it out in no uncertain terms, either they allow us to make personal copies or they dont, period..(im leaning towards allow Btw)
And DLing for personal use is perfectly fine…
Selling the content to profit from it is indeed piracy…
it all boils down to the same conclusion of almost every thread here, Copyright laws need reform and until it happens we will continue to see people like Henrik Andersen trying to *make it happen..
Yeh, the bad thing.. that TRYING to make it happen isn’t enough, 15.
If I were on court.. I would free him just by the fact he confessed he had done it, even that NO ONE made an acussation.
But.. I wonder what will the trial end up in.. Keep it in coverage :D
I think we should focus more on what Henrik Andersen has done.
Denmark could definately use more critical debate about copyright issues.
I think it is a very bold move, to put himself in the line of the MAFIAA and the Antipiratgruppen (Antipiracy group of Denmark).
Cheers Henrik, from a fellow p2p user / uploader / sharer.
This is what we need on a global basis, more people actively working to put copyright issues to public debate, instead of letting the copyright-holders deciding which cases to try, and where. Let the masses decide the issues, not the few rich bastards controlling the media.
Fandme godt initiativ Henrik!
@15 L2READ
It wasn’t like he was selling the damn copies to people, he was simply using them for his home media center like most people do. Or atleast the ones that have a tv and don’t want to have a giant ass tower sitting in our living room. He falls in the law until the DRM is brought in, the question is whether the word effective is a defining word in the law or not. And another thing is whether he will be a scapegoat for the law makers to look at this and say, Well, technically he didn’t circumvent the DRM, the software he used did… He is actually doing something that needs to be done for all countries so legitimate people aren’t prosecuted for non-pirate activities.
What a fool, he should have downloaded those DVDs for free instead of buying them and financing his (/our) enemies this way.
If you believe in freedom don’t buy new DVDs, buy buy them 2nd hand or download them for free.
@18
Focus on the root issues..
Reform the policies that caused him to act..
You are grasping at straws with statements like “”technically he didn’t circumvent the DRM, the software he used did…”"
it’s like saying “People dont kill people, guns do”
Be realisttic and focus, be clear and direct, if you leave something open for interpretation then someone will interpret it to their benefit..
I completely agree with this “”He is actually doing something that needs to be done for all countries so legitimate people aren’t prosecuted for non-pirate activities.”"
And that was partially my point..
I also agree with #17…
@20
yes “legitimate” people which means all non commericial file sharers ;)
Personally, I think copyright law is tuck between a rock and a hard place..
Obviously they dont want us to make copies and would love to clearly define that, but on the other hand we have all the electronic corps the creat all these goods to sell and have sold us with the ability to do *exactly what they would tell us we cannot do, they do have quite the delema at hand..
Realistically speaking they actually have to allow us to create personal copies or go against every electronic manufacturer in the world…
@4, @5 I don’t believe your interpretation of “effective technological measures” is correct. In the legal sense, I believe what it means is something akin to “employed technological measures”, or rather, technological measures that are *in effect*”, in which case DRM is regardless of whether it’s actually *successful*.
I’m not a lawyer of any country though, so I could be wrong. It could also be that the interpretation just depends on what country’s version is interpreted
one great reason to do this? depending on jurisdiction (not sure in this case) failing to prosecute in a timely manor forfeits the right to do so.
LAWBREAKER
Nail him to the cross.
@20
guns dont kill people, nuh-uh. i kill people, with guns!
Sounds like he’s a bit of an attention whore to me.
I wish this guy luck in his fight his point is valid. DRM limits what you can do with the product you legally purchased. If you buy anything you are now the legal owner and as such shouldn’t have to be limited in anyway in it’s usage. Protection and laws shouldn’t come at the expense of your customers. This guy wants to load his movies to an HTPC for ease of use that should not only be his right to do so but none of the rights holders business.
All those DRM protections doesn´t do shit.
Lets be honest here any “pirate” out there worth his merit knows how to remove the DRM from a game,movie or music CD.
In the end all it does is annoy all the user who buys the product legally.
I hope this chase serves as a wake up call for the culture minister and the different companies out there.
” effective technological measures ”
They are not effective, so I guess he isn’t breaking the law
Nice article, enigmax. Make sure to follow the situation and keep us updated, if anything ever goes down.
Laws need to be more clear and less contradicting. I find it retarded that the law there says you can have a digital copy of something for private use, and then turns around and says if you break the DRM, or decrypt the copy protection, you are in violation of the law. And I bet if you asked the rights holders if you can make a copy of their movie for private use, they would say no, or tell you if you want to copy it you must pay full price for permission to copy, or tell you to go out and buy another copy.
Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t.
bel coglione!
@23, it cant be in effect if it isn’t effective.
As it is a criminal offence to break the DRM, if the Anti-pirate group fails to act…he should report him self to the police.
I would hope that the anti-pirate group would also be charged with aiding and abetting after the fact by withholding the info from the police….sadly that will never happen.
I’ve actually grown bored with downloading any industry’s films/music/etc..
If I want entertainment, stimulation, education, etc., I usually just get together with real people, and stuff like that. I think that’s how we did it back in our tribal days. The best fun.
Now we’ve been REDUCED to mere
“target-market targets” stuck on a funfair duck-shot treadmill of “for-money modules” (think malls as money-modules, as one example) with a return on our hard-earned investments snatched out of our hands and shipped away to a nameless faceless shareholder group uninterested in local community-building, except as a kind of “marketing adspeak”.
And I mean that sincerely.
Almost all the music I have on my computer is now free/libre and what for-money stuff is left over is gradually being replaced.
I predict that, by somewhere in 2010, there won’t be a for-money item left on my system.
As I wrote this post, I happened to be listening to Michael Fyrek’s ‘Do You Think It’s Just a Dream’.
@14 Why Do you people continue to pick on the United States like we’ve bent over to the MPAA. I dont hardly know anyone who doesnt pirate movies and music here. We just happen to be in the country where the retards(mpaa) started internet domination. But if you think that we dont pirate by the masses, your sadly mistaken.
sounds like the anti-pirate group is being trolled…
if an ISP would have a bigger chance in court against antipiracy groups, wouldn’t it be possible to get other’s in the boat too? if you say the isp is responsible because they make bittorrent possible than maybe someone like microsoft is responsible too? i’d really like to see how us-distributors would stand against someone big like microsoft in a court.
effective has several meanings, and chances are it’s being used in the manner 23 described.
@34 “in effect” doesn’t mean what you think it means.
@
36 Nov 04, 2009 at 02:44 by Bobe-On (Reductio Ad Absurdum)
I’ve actually grown bored with downloading any industry’s films/music/etc..
Just go wih the older stuff like 1954 movie etc. There is no copyright @ you can share all u want. Don’t be fooled though, as the entertainment parasites have even removed some of it though & I am guessing this is maybe a threat to them? Basically, copyright is being abused.
Bogus copyright and trademark complaints have threatened all kinds of creative expression on the Internet. EFF’s Hall Of Shame collects the worst of the worst.
http://www.eff.org/takedowns
October 27th, 2009
‘Hall of Shame’ Calls Out Bogus Internet Censorship
New Website Highlights Outrageous Attempts to Take Down Online Content
San Francisco – Websites like YouTube have ushered in a new era of creativity and free speech on the Internet, but not everyone is celebrating. Some of the web’s most interesting content has been yanked from popular websites with bogus copyright claims or other spurious legal threats. So today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching its “Takedown Hall of Shame” to call attention to particularly bogus takedowns — and showcase the amazing online videos and other creative works that someone doesn’t want you to see.
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/10/27
Kudos to Henrik Andersen for having the balls to try this.
It’s a good idea, actually. Either they sue him or they silently admit they have no case. In the latter case, he should sue them to have a judge declare he’s either not in violation of their copyright or he is, but isn’t liable.
2 TBs and still going..
That is a very naive view by the culture minister of Denmark.
If the industry ever allows for personal copies it will certainly be crippled copies and not bit-by-bit digital copies that consumers are entitled to by section 12 of Danish law.
In general, lawmaking and democracy is not keeping in touch with the digital era (I suspect because its mostly run by computer illiterates who themselves are out of touch with the digital era).
Unless of course there are lobbyists telling the lawmakers which laws must be made.
Case in point would be The Daily Show. In Denmark a public media license payment is demanded from anybody with a cell phone or tv, and here we pay for TDS. Which is aired irregularly on TV, so I resort to streaming from the US website, and watching the commercials, hence paying twice for the show.
DRM was always a lame and forced technology! I mean let it die already!
But if the word “effective” means “in effect” (being used), it kind of is no point to using it, is there?
It’s not like you can actually break a DRM scheme that isn’t being used, right?
Which means that any way you spin it, the word has no use in that sentence. Unless, of course, they mean that it’s illegal to be the FIRST to break it?
No one will get done for copying DVDs they legally purchased to their own devices for private use.
For circumvention to take place there is no need to break any encryption or DRM just the mere act of lending or streaming can be constructed as and act of piracy.
Backup of bits that copy and exact mirror image of a disc are piracy now.
I don’t think people really grasp what intellectual property legislation is and how far it goes into their lives.
I am assuming that this law was written in the native language of Denmark, rather than English. That being so how does the original sentence read and is the use of the English work ‘effective’ correct in this context.
For example many say that the world was created in seven days, because the bible says so. But the original Hebrew text uses a word that can have one of several meanings. Including that which when multiplied by seven equals the current 14.7 Billion Year age of the Universe.
We’ll take him to the cleaners.
The Police had better be sure to check those hard disks for illegally downloaded content and child porn, then he can be shown as a fool for protesting our perfect laws.
As we know all pirates are paedophiles.
“id like to turn myself in for a illegal copy of word …” ….person on phone says LOL “delete it”
HAHAAAHAHAHAHA
Steel balls he has. However, any sane legal system (providing MAFIAA is actually stupid enough to sue him) would give him backup.
However, his initiative calls the attention of the world for the flaws within the copyright laws.
In the end it’s just the old issue: the media industry has to evolve and find a model that has them, their customers and the artists as happy as possible… None will be 100% happy but there is a % that everybody is willing to accept.
BRA GJORT HENRIK, KÄMPA PÅ!
He deserves everybodys support. More people should consider doing something similar.
What if EVERYONE turned themselves in as a pirate, wouldn’t that be interesting?!
It would totally swamp the resources of the police. They could never find who was a real “pirate” and who was wasting their time on purpose.
As it is right now, it’s the most clueless people who seem to get caught, or those with extremely bad luck.
I bet less than 1% of filesharers have been threatened by legal action, let alone sued and convicted.
“75.c –(1) It is not permitted to circumvent effective technological measures without the consent of the rights holder.”
I would have thought that if the ‘technological measures’ were ‘effective’ then they couldn’t be circumvented – If they can be circumvented then they obviously aren’t effective
In which case I wonder how it is possible to be guilty of breaking this particular law…..
DRM is a joke. Any company who uses DRM has a crappy business model. They’re just too old to understand the internet.
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