Ever wondered whether you’re breaking DRM legislation or now? Even the experts don’t quite know what’s legal, as this recent Norwegian survey shows. I translated the results into English for your reading pleasure; for the Norwegian original follow that link.

As Jon points out, it’s a wonder even half of teenagers know what “illegal downloads” is supposed to mean. Oh, and Norwegian law differs somewhat from other countries’ laws, just to complicate things.

Cultural dept Jon Bing (IT law professor) Kripos (Police) IFPI (film and music industry) EFN (EFF Norway)
Arne’s three year old daughter doesn’t
exactly treat the children’s DVDs Arne has bought with respect, and has
rendered many of them unplayable. So Arne has started making backup copies of
his DVDs right after he buys them, before giving them to his daughter.
Because Arne’s not very good with computers, a friend does this for him.
Permitted with limitations. Unclear Illegal Illegal Illegal
Arne has a lot of DVDs. When he travels,
he transfers some of them to his iPod so he can watch them on the plane.
Unclear Unclear Unclear Illegal Unclear
Arne has downloaded thousands of songs
from various online shops. This has cost him several thousand kroner. Arne
can’t make backups of all this on his own, but knows that it’s important to
have a backup, so he archives his music on an external storage service (like
mp3tunes.com) so he won’t lose his music if his computer breaks.
Permitted Unclear Permitted with limitations. Illegal Illegal
Arne uses some of the songs he’s bought
online as ringtones for his phone.
Permitted with limitations. Unclear Unclear Illegal Permitted with limitations.
Arne’s mother got a new Creative player
for Christmas. Arne hasbought a lot of music on iTunes that his mother wants
to listen to. So Arne converts the music he’s bought on iTunes so it can be
played on his mother’s Creative player.
Unclear Unclear Unclear Permitted with limitations. Unclear
In the USA Arne bought a perfect
children’s game. When he got home, he discovered the game couldn’t be played
because it was for the wrong zone. So he wants to modify his Playstation so
his daughter can play the game.
Permitted Permitted Illegal Permitted Permitted

3 thoughts on “is this illegal?

  1. Martin

    The vacous stupidity of these regulations actually make me angry. We’re in a market which is neither for the producers, nor the consumers, but for the distributors and managers. And the government is dancing to their fiddle.

    And then they can’t even get their act together about what the legislation means. Sigh.

    (Oh: Your blog still doesn’t like me, Jill.)

  2. Jill

    Why doesn’t my blog like you? Ugh, I hear others get server errors and nonsense, what’s that about anyway? It doesn’t make sense that it should work fine for some and not for others?

    And yes. Idiotic regulations.

  3. Martin

    Maybe I have bad breath?

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