[Ecommerce] Finnish gov will not criminalise MP3 players

[Michelle Childs]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/16/finland_to_enact_eucd/

Finnish gov will not criminalise MP3 players - officials
May ban copy-protection circumvention, though
By Tony Smith
Published Friday 16th September 2005 12:09 GMT

Fears that Finland's upcoming new copyright legislation would de facto
render MP3 players illegal are unfounded, Ministry of Justice officials
have claimed.

Like the US' Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and laws enacted by
other European Union member states under the direction of the European
Union Copyright Directive (EUCD), Finland's proposed new law would ban the
circumvention of copy protection mechanisms. That said, the law does make
it possible to copy music for personal use, which gives, say, CD owners
the right to rip songs in order to transfer the songs to an iPod Nano.

Indeed, such a freedom is not granted to other European citizens. English
law, for example, does not permit recording owners to make copies for
personal usage beyond certain academic/study purposes, technically
rendering the act of transferring a CD - even a CD you own - to an MP3
player illegal.

That doesn't render iPods illegal, incidentally, because they have
substantial non-infringing uses, such as holding tracks for which the
player owner holds the copyright, or for licensed copies like those
downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.

In Finland, Jukka Liedes, an official with the Ministry of Justice,
yesterday claimed bypassing copy protection for the purpose of make a copy
for personal use only would not be criminalised under the new law, Finnish
newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported today.

The bill goes before the Grand Committee of Finland's Parliament today.
The Committee has the right to amend the proposed law, and it appears
likely a change removing the copy protection circumvention clause may be
suggested.

Finnish Minister of Culture Tanja Karpela yesterday called on the
Committee not to make such a change - or the new law may fail to meet the
requirements of the EUCD. =AE




--
Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs
Consumer Project on Technology in London
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