[LINK] Fwd: Review of Format-Shifting Exceptions

[Brendan Scott]

Glen Turner wrote:
> Hi Laura,
> 
> Tony Barry forwarded you mail to the Link mailing list.
> 
>> - Technological protection measures (TPMs)
>> The Copyright Act 1968 makes it an offence to break technological  
>> protections measures, or digital locks. Therefore, if a user owns a  
>> photograph or video containing some kind of copy-protection on it,  
>> they will be unable to utilise the format shifting provisions,  
>> since it would be illegal for them to override or break copy- 
>> protection. So if a consumer purchases photographs in digital  
>> format, but the photographs are locked up to prevent them from  
>> being printed out, the consumer is unable to format shift them.

[]

> It should also be permitted to breach a TPM where the vendor has
> implemented region coding for the purposes of market differentiation.
> That is, to copy a Region 1 CSS-protected DVD to a region-free DVD
> for playing on my Region 5 DVD player.

There is an exception to the meaning of access control technological protection measure (honestly, that's what it's called) which places such schemes outside the meaning of the term.  However, I think there is a good chance that if an actpm plays has a dual role, the exception won't apply.