UKPO proposes even broader version of DMCA

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

As in patent matters, the UK Patent Office is taking the world's most
extremist position also in implementing the EU directive which outlaws
circumvention of digital restrictions managment (DRM).  This directive's
basic spirit is similar to the DMCA, but it leaves room for a less
intrusive implementation into national law.  However the british
government is leaving matters to the UK Patent Office, and the UKPO is
proposing to implement the directive in a *more* intrusive form than the
EU has demanded and more intrusive than the DMCA, making it actually
illegal to posess debuggers, compilers etc, to make books accessible
to the blind etc pp.

In the software patent directive's case, it was the UKPO, wearing the hat
of the british government, which has been pressing Brussels most actively
for legalisation of software patents all along since 1997.  So far all we
have heard from British MPs is agreement with the government and the UKPO,
see MP Inglewood's statement posted here recently.  There seems to be no
spark of light at all in British politics. Britain has also since the
1970s been at the forefront of patent inflation in the world.  When the US
still refused swpat, Britain was already espousing them, and "EU
harmonisation" is their way of bringing continental europe in line with
british ways.

See also

        http://swpat.ffii.org/players/uk/

The following consultation paper of course invites comments from the
public, but from the previous software patentability consultation we know
too well that the UKPO gives a damn about these comments.  Even when the
participatents overwhelmingly argue against the UKPO, all they do in the
end is to reiterate their preconceived position and embellish it with some
references to their distorted version of the consultants' viewpoints.

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:              Mon, 12 Aug 2002 02:52:03 -0400
To:                     politech@politechbot.com
From:                   Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:                FC: U.K. considers even broader version of DMCA 
copyright law
Send reply to:          declan@well.com

Text of the draft:
http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/consultations/eccopyright/index.htm

Excerpt (page 14 of PDF):
>  A person commits an offence if he—
>(a) makes for sale or hire, or
>(b) imports otherwise than for his private and domestic use, or
>(c) in the course of a business—
>(i) sells or lets for hire, or
>(ii) offers or exposes for sale or hire, or
>(iii) advertises for sale or hire, or
>(iv) possesses, or
>(v) distributes, or
>(d) distributes otherwise than in the course of a business to such an
>extent as to affect prejudicially the copyright owner any device,
>product or component which is primarily designed, produced, or
>adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention
>of effective technological measures.

Because, based on my quick and preliminary reading, this would ban the
mere possession of circumvention tools, it would be broader than the
U.S. version.

-Declan

---

From: Brad Lipovsky <syzme@charter.net>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: DMCA Spreads To Europe
Date: Fri, 9 Aug 2002 18:46:18 -0400

A consultation paper has finaly been released from the UK Patent
Office about the European Union Copyright Directive, or EUCA.  The
paper can be found at http://www.patent.gov.uk/about/contact.htm.
People have been talking for some time about the European equivalent
to the DMCA, and here it is.

--Brad Lipovsky




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