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Finnish appeals court overturns controversial CSS ruling

Written by James Delahunty @ 27 May 2008 2:14 User comments (15)

Finnish appeals court overturns controversial CSS ruling

The Helsinki Court of Appeals has overturned a controversial ruling made last year, which found that CSS copy protection in use on almost all retail movie DVDs was "ineffective". Finnish copyright law (amended in 2006 by adoption of EUCD) prohibits circumventing "effective technological measures", but the court original found that CSS cannot be described as an "efficient copy protection mechanism" anymore.
Within days of the ruling, the prosecutor announced plans to appeal the decision and on Monday, the Appeals Court overturned the original ruling. It rejected the District Court's judgment based on the objectives of DRM regulation.

However, there have been two major errors claimed in the appeals court decision. Firstly, the court claimed that circumventing an access control would have been legal but that the defendants had circumvented a full copy protection system (CSS). In reality, the defendants actually had only circumvented an access control.



Secondly, the court found that the circumvention was only legally ok if no additional software was installed to perform the process, and claimed that you always need to install some form of "hack" software to watch DVDs on Linux. Again, this is not true as you can get legal players that can play DVDs (VLC for example) and with some distros DVD-capable software comes standard.

The case began when several activists turned themselves in to a police station in the country admitting to running a website that shows how to circumvent CSS protection on DVDs. This was in response to the adoption of the new copyright restrictions in the country in late 2005. The next step now would be to take the case to the supreme court, but it may never happen as the court generally only hears 10% of all cases appealed.

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15 user comments

127.5.2008 05:34
nobrainer
Inactive

And the media lobby again lie to secure DRM but as they are now going to force us all to downgrade to blu-ray it has little implications to dvd, but as a ruling against DRM this would have never have been allowed to pass, as DRM is a global price fixing tool and what the IFPI, RIAA, MPAA, use to force us to purchase media we already purchased, again & again when they decide to change formats and block us and make it illegal to move media we own onto the new format. A licence to print money, as they rip us off with the help of governments.

WHY IS FORMAT SHIFTING ILLEGAL WITH MEDIA WE ALREADY OWN?


DRM on media we OWN is anti consumer, boycott all DRM crippled hardware.

Blu-Ray, the MPAA's hoice replacement to DVD because of the extra level of DRM = the most anti consumer orwellian controlled media player ever, and has been made for the future of licensing and the ability to restrict all media played on it.

HDCP HDMI, should be boycotted as it is forcing everyone to purchase new equipment or you will not get a picture.

If you don't purchase the crapware they will have no choice but to change.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 5:35

227.5.2008 08:55
oappi
Inactive

well what can we say.. Finlands laws are so retired that it hurts. as seen here laws are writen so inaccurately everyone can found different meaning for it. Well more jobs for lawyers i guess. How enconvinient that lawyer write these laws that way.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 8:57

327.5.2008 09:35

@nobrainer

Are you a lobbyist for the EFF?

427.5.2008 10:27

Originally posted by nobrainer:
Blu-Ray, the MPAA's hoice replacement to DVD because of the extra level of DRM = the most anti consumer orwellian controlled media player ever, and has been made for the future of licensing and the ability to restrict all media played on it.
Do you not realize the DVD still outsells Blu ray and that the standard dvd format will still be around as long as "CD/DVD" is the choice for hard media. So lets put this together...

DVD still being produced = still being able to "backup" your precious media.

noone, is forcing you to buy blu ray, in fact most people don't. stop groping, you still have a way to pirate.

EDITED A LINE B/C I WAS A LITTLE OUT OF LINE WITH NAME CALLING.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 12:56

527.5.2008 10:46

so much hate in you grkblood so much hate

627.5.2008 10:56

lol, no. no hate, just aggrevation. all news topics end up being an RIAA/MPAA/IFPI issue as soon as nobrainer posts. its pretty ridiculous.

727.5.2008 11:34
v965hdss
Inactive

nobrainer must be a yank if not should be one with the shit he writes, if you feel that strong about DRM don't buy then it won't bother you, and nobody is forcing me to buy anything.

827.5.2008 12:07

When your DRM'd players, cables, discs, ISP's, OS's and hardware are sticking it to you in the future that is well (Or I should say ORwellian) on it's way I hope you remember the posts of those who warned you. It IS a no-brainer!

927.5.2008 12:12

Whoa! you guys should be ashamed of yourself for calling nobrainer names. Glad you two weren't around during the civil right movement. nobrainer maybe a little more vocal them some but u people need to be educated. Just from experience my family was burned twice by Sony with one of their crappy DVD recorders that don't record sh1t due to DRM and an upscaling dvd player that doesnt upscale though component cable (DRM once again) even though all the other pieces of my father home theater were sony. Thankfully I quickly got educated, moved out, and have never brought a sony product since as well as the rest of my family.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 5:41

1027.5.2008 12:25

@ v965hdss and grkblood
Are you trolls needing fed again?
Or maybe you children should be seen and not heard!!!
OR MAYBE JUST MAYBE you can counter Nobrainer with a valid argument, thought not. Read children read, cause knowledge is power and thats a fact.

1127.5.2008 12:43

Lets get this BACK ON TOPIC, nobrainer can post what he chooses to post, because in all reality, its the truth, certain entities are choosing to cripple new hardware and software with DRM, making them media company friendly but not so much consumer friendly.

His post may have been abit off topic, but posting simply for the fact of insulting another member will not be tolerated.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 12:44

1227.5.2008 12:57

Originally posted by DVDBack23:
Lets get this BACK ON TOPIC, nobrainer can post what he chooses to post, because in all reality, its the truth, certain entities are choosing to cripple new hardware and software with DRM, making them media company friendly but not so much consumer friendly.

His post may have been abit off topic, but posting simply for the fact of insulting another member will not be tolerated.
and yet it has been tolerated, since grkblood apparently can call no-brainner an idiot, and nothing has happened.

Besides, if you dont like this kind of discussion, i really don't know what you're doing in Ad, all i know is 95% of the stuff that i read in here is some how related to de RIAA MPAA, and its actually why i have become a regular of this website

1327.5.2008 13:31
nobrainer
Inactive

Originally posted by Gradical:


and yet it has been tolerated, since grkblood apparently can call no-brainner an idiot, and nothing has happened.

Besides, if you dont like this kind of discussion, i really don't know what you're doing in Ad, all i know is 95% of the stuff that i read in here is some how related to de RIAA MPAA, and its actually why i have become a regular of this website
don't sweat it i've been called much worse, who is the idiot at the end of the day, someone informed or someone wondering blindly into corporate locks and accept it as they bend over with a bottle of lube to hand?

the ifpi and mpaa, riaa, ect are the only reason that anti-consumer pro ip laws like the DMCA and lobbyists are in existence.

this case directly effects all DRM as this suit could have been applied to blu-ray, digital downloads, cd's and every form of DRM conceived in the future, which is why the IFPI/MPAA(and all AA variants) has fought and lied to stop it.

basically this law would have made it legal to rip your own content, to format shift to other media you own but big media (MPAA, IFPI, yada, yada) want to get paid every time you shift your media and want everyone to join subscription services instead of owned media.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 May 2008 @ 1:34

143.6.2008 17:17

I don't agree with the notion that DvD's will last forever. In fact it may start off slowly, but in the end we'll all be forced to go Blue-Ray if we want to enjoy full 1080i on our HDTV's we've invested so much money in. Also people are not even aware that as things go Digital AkA ATSC DTV, Blue Ray it allows for more and more control by the media. Thank God SlySoft has AnyDvD to circumvent the new copy protection methods encoded on the blue ray discs.

As far as buying an upscaling DvD player and having it not work on your HDTV because of HDCP? Well this was something the public has been warned about in the first place. After all how is the media giants going to ploy one to purchase that new Blue Ray disc player if you can simply upconvert any DvD to 1080i? Well I guess stupid Americans have to learn the hard way. I guess the only way to put it into their heads is to write Rock songs aham excuse me I mean Rap songs these days since most youngsters have no sense for music and put our feelings about DRM in the songs.

Apple is very effective with their Mac VS Windows campaign, so us knowledgeable folks need to get out the beat box and scream and rap about it before anyone will finally realize anything. I guess this one I'll leave for the rappers. Maybe the educated adults will make Rock songs for the more mature and have lyrics about DRM.

1512.6.2008 03:07

Good for the Finns, and yes you could say no-brainer has very strong opinions, and yes you could agree and disagree, but when it comes down to facts, weather I agree or not I haven't seen him wrong yet.

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