French Court – Private Copying is Not a Right

Says companies are allowed to put Digital Rights Management on their CDs, even if it doesn’t work on some devices.

It may be a small setback to advocates who want to broaden their rights when they copy a CD. According to 01net (Google Translated), a French court has ruled that if a company puts Digital Rights Management (DRM) on their CD and a consumer can’t play it, the company did not break any laws and cannot be held liable for damages. Naturally, proponents for DRM applauded the decision (Google Translation)

While many users of content may feel that copying is a right, the ruling seems to just reinforce what has been generally set in stone in many other countries, that, legally speaking, private copying is an exception, not a right. If a company chooses to put DRM on their CD, then they are entitled to do so.

In countries like Canada and the United States, there are systems where if one buys a blank CD, they also pay into a levy system which makes it’s way back to rights holders. Whether or not the system is fair has been a topic for debate for years. Still, there are many examples of this system reinforcing the fact that private copying is an exception under law, not technically a right.

The real battle has been fought on whether a user has a right to make a copy of, say, an album, and burn it onto an additional CD or any other device. In short, it has been a war between the “I bought it, it’s, therefore, my property, I can do whatever I want with it” perspective and, “We need to stop piracy and enforce our intellectual property rights” perspective.

This ruling, judging by the reports, doesn’t seem to be that big of a departure.

Related Posts

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2. CRIA and Private Copying
3. New lawsuit targets DVD copying
4. French court bans DRM
5. Copying Own CDs Still Not Legal