Re: [dvd-discuss] Geeks in government: A good idea?

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On 18 Aug 2002 at 20:06, Lars Gaarden wrote:

Date sent:      	Sun, 18 Aug 2002 20:06:44 +0200
From:           	Lars Gaarden <larsg@eurorights.org>
To:             	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu
Subject:        	Re: [dvd-discuss] Geeks in government: A good idea?
Send reply to:  	dvd-discuss@eon.law.harvard.edu

> Jon Lech Johansen wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 18, 2002 at 02:45:58AM +0200, Lars Gaarden (larsg@eurorights.org)
> > wrote:
> > 
> >>It would however be interesting to see how they are able to argue
> >>that selling region free/multiregion players is illegal.
> > 
> > Protection of technological measures. Article 6.
> 
> A technological measure is only protected by law if it protects the
> rightholder's rights according to copyright.
> 
> Parallel import laws and community exhaustion both give the rightholder
> the right to control commercial import from outside EU, but it does not
> give the rightholder the right to control personal import. If it is
> impossible for me to legally buy a region free player, the effect is
> that the rightholder's right to control import has been extended to also
> cover personal import - which they should not be entitled to.
> 
> ..but I digress. With the batting average of the courts so far, we will
> probably see the copyright police marching in the streets of Europe
> hunting down region free players early next year.
> 
> 
> I have been playing with the thought that it might be possible to
> stop this crazy extention of copyright scope on a constitutional basis.
> Does anyone know whether any of the EU countries have something similar
> to the US copyright clause ("to promote the progress..")?

Is it working in the US of A? 

> 
> At the EU level, you don't really have a constitution. You have the
> treaties that EU is founded on, and you have the European Convention
> on Human Rights.
> 

And to read the WIPO website Human Rights are subservient to Copy Rights...

> -- 
> LarsG
>