AfterDawn: News

Defendants in Finnish CSS case seek their day in the Supreme Court

In Afterdawn 's home country of Finland one of the most interesting DRM-related cases ever may be going to the country's highest court if the defendants get their way. At issue is the question of whether the CSS encryption used on DVDs is legally considered "ineffective."

A Finnish court had initially ruled that bypassing CSS encryption doesn't violate Finland's implementation of the European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) because it specifically mentions that "ineffective" DRM isn't covered. But is CSS actually ineffective?



According to an appeals court it's not. In May the Helsinki Court of Appeals overturned the lower court's ruling.

It's generally accepted that DVDs will be the dominant home video format for at least the next few years. With the possibliity that it may be legal to break that encryption would make it possible to do things like watching DVDs in Linux and even distribute tools to bypass CSS.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 24 Jul 2008 22:41

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• 6 comments

• masa92

  Why do our politiciants make laws that are so hard to understand that even they don't know what does it means. It aint said in the law what is effective and what isn't. That is just f*ing great from our wise politiciants; another stupid law.

  25.7.2008 06:11 #1

• blueroad

  these are politicians your reffering to..expect many more to come..

  25.7.2008 07:46 #2

• beanos66

  politician's just do what they are told to do by the people with the money

  25.7.2008 13:46 #3

• area_51

  Originally posted by beanos66: politician's just do what they are told to do by the people with the moneyThats hitting the nail on the head!

  25.7.2008 15:07 #4

• masa92

  Originally posted by beanos66: politician's just do what they are told to do by the people with the money That's the case in Russia and USA and in all those other "democraties". But in Finland, I don't think that that's a big problem.

  25.7.2008 15:17 #5

• Makere

  Quote:Originally posted by beanos66: politician's just do what they are told to do by the people with the money That's the case in Russia and USA and in all those other "democraties". But in Finland, I don't think that that's a big problem.I'd say Finland is more corrupted now, mostly due the working propaganda of Finland being uncorrupted. These laws just prove it. I'd say that anyone with a decent amount of money, could go talk to some politicians and lobby some benefical law in the name of child porn or copyrights.

  28.7.2008 02:29 #6