Re: [Fsfe-uk] FDL and DRM, was: DRM, TPM, or what?

[MJ Ray]

Alex Hudson <address@hidden>
> On Thu, 2006-05-11 at 07:27 +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
> > Are you claiming the FDL only covers the copying, not the
> > copyright (clearly nuts IMO: it's a copyright licence)
> 
> Nope, I'm not claiming that. There are things other than copying that
> are covered by copyright. But that sentence above still stands: if I
> haven't given someone a copy of the document, I don't have an obligation
> to them.

As you know, your obligation under the FDL is to the licensor,
not people that you give a copy.  You can argue that the
licensor will never find out, but that seems like advocating
jumping red lights late at night when no-one is around:
possibly justifiable and popularly accepted, but still illegal.

> > and that modifying a copy isn't partly making the modified copy
> > (possible, but I've never found any evidence for that)?
> 
> It may come down to the process involved, but in general modifying a
> file isn't making a copy. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be
> treated the same as modifying something physical: even if there were a

Exactly! The modification of the copy is part of its making.  I do
not claim it is making another copy, but part of making that copy.
(This damned ambiguous language bites me again...)

> copy made in RAM or something while you modified it, it would be treated
> as temporary and "an integral and essential part of a technological
> process" (Copyright & Related Rights Act, 2003).

As such, still subject to copyright. Although maybe we have
non-licence permissions that would help us in England, I
don't think they are yet part of the Berne treaty or similar.
I doubt they'll be in the extremely hazardous WIPO one currently 
making its way towards us. (For more on that, see past posts in
<http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/random-bits/> and help!)

> The file permissions thing is possibly a red herring, I don't think it
> would even count as modification of the work.

That's not true for all DRM, but it's not far from the Tivo trouble.
-- 
MJ Ray - personal email, see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Work: http://www.ttllp.co.uk/  irc.oftc.net/slef  Jabber/SIP ask