The court ruled that the removal of DRM protection is not a violation of copyright

New York Federal Judge Denise Cote ruled in a case where two publishing firms were the plaintiffs and Abbey House Media the defendant was the defendant, that distributing information about the possibilities of removing DRM protection from e-books is not a violation of copyright. This is reported by EFF .

Such a lawsuit was filed after the seller, closing his online store, warned buyers that they would not be able to further configure DRM protection for books sold on new reading devices. And in this regard, he advised using a program to remove Caliber protection.

“How to access downloaded books when changing the reading device: it is possible to remove DRM protection from books, after which you can freely copy your books from device to device without having to download them again. On the Internet you can find many instructions for removing protection. [...] For example, many of our customers use Caliber. [...] People argue that this is legal as long as you use your books yourself and do not pirate them. We were informed that this is in the spirit of e-book licenses and is a common practice. ”

Book publishers were outraged by such concern for customers and, of course, yelled about copyright violations and shameful piracy. However, the judge decided otherwise: “Indeed, Abbey House encouraged buyers to remove copy protection. But the fact is that removing copyright is not a violation of copyright. Violates copyright only copying and distribution of books with the protection removed. The plaintiffs did not prove that Abbey House called for buyers to do so. ”

Copywriters are constantly trying to take away as many rights from people as possible. For example, in 2013, the Redigi service was banned ., which allowed you to resell tracks purchased on iTunes. Obviously, the issue of copyright and the concept of property in the digital world require a radical review, only as long as large corporations can get super-profits by exploiting old concepts and not see a bright digital future for us.