DADVSI
- From: "Michael Babcock" <mouki@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <Programming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 22:16:44 -0800
I dont know if this would affect any one here, but thought it should be passed
on. It is directly copyed from the vlc web site:
What is DADVSI ?
The DADVSI (roughly "Author Rights and other Rights in the Information
Society") is the French transcription of the european EUCD (European Union
Copyright
Directive) text, which itself comes from the american DMCA (Digital Millenium
Copyright Act).
The main goal of this law is to restrict the rights of digital content
purchasers. It most notably forbids them from working around technical content
protection
measures.
Doing so, writing or publishing software allowing to do so, or even merely
talking about ways to do so becomes an offence that can be punished with three
years in jail.
VideoLAN is directly impacted, most notably for its DVD reading capability (all
Linux DVD reading software has the same problem). Should this law be passed
as it is written, this would seriously hinder VLC's development.
The french website
eucd.info
collects a large number of related articles and documentation, and has a
dedicated english-speaking section.
Discussion about this law has started in the french National Assembly, and will
resume on January, 17th.
A nice fact is that many MPs, both from the Government's political party and
opposition were very aware of the possible impact of this law on Free Software,
and there was a real debate on the first part of the law.
The most important parts (mostly about DRM and Peer-To-Peer) will take place in
January, so the battle is not over. It is thus very important to keep spreading
the word about the dangers of this law.
We would like to thank all the people involved in miscellaneous information
actions, and the MPs that raised concerns concerns about this text, thus
allowing
a general public awareness about these issues.
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