...but strictly for security purposes. New DMCA rules make it legal to rip your DVDs, jailbreak and unlock your phones too.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) got a big revision today that will likely change the way that users may lawfully use and enjoy the products and media that they own.
Today the Librarian of Congress announced DMCA Section 1201, which adds six provisions whereby "persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention."
Essentially, it comes down to this:
1. People may now rip DVDs to show clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.
2. People may now legally jailbreak their iPhones and root their Android phones without fear that a corporation will rain down upon them.
3. People may now legally unlock their cell phones.
(These first three are mostly the result of lobbying from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.)
4. People may now circumvent the copy protection of PC and video games for investigative reasons. This should be a great thing for PC gamers sick of dealing with the DRM of the games they legally purchased.
5. People may now get past software that's protected by an outdated hardware dongle.
6. People may now break past ebooks that don't allow the text to be read aloud.
The official listing of the six classes of works are:
Source
---------- Post added at 05:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 AM ----------
^^ Mods please move this thread into Technology News section - sorry for the inconvenience.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) got a big revision today that will likely change the way that users may lawfully use and enjoy the products and media that they own.
Today the Librarian of Congress announced DMCA Section 1201, which adds six provisions whereby "persons who circumvent access controls in order to engage in noninfringing uses of works in these six classes will not be subject to the statutory prohibition against circumvention."
Essentially, it comes down to this:
1. People may now rip DVDs to show clips for educational purposes, criticism, commentary and noncommercial videos.
2. People may now legally jailbreak their iPhones and root their Android phones without fear that a corporation will rain down upon them.
3. People may now legally unlock their cell phones.
(These first three are mostly the result of lobbying from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.)
4. People may now circumvent the copy protection of PC and video games for investigative reasons. This should be a great thing for PC gamers sick of dealing with the DRM of the games they legally purchased.
5. People may now get past software that's protected by an outdated hardware dongle.
6. People may now break past ebooks that don't allow the text to be read aloud.
The official listing of the six classes of works are:
Source
---------- Post added at 05:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:48 AM ----------
^^ Mods please move this thread into Technology News section - sorry for the inconvenience.