[Gllug] EUCD: It begins, mod chips illegal

[Doug Winter]

On Thu 22 Jul Dylan wrote:
> W have always had the defense of 'fair dealings' which is the same as 
> your 'fair use' and I would sincerely hope a court would uphold fair 
> dealing if it came to it - at the very least I would expect the Lords 
> to uphold it. Perhaps that is a vain hope, but still...

UK Fair Dealing quite different from US Fair Use, and much more limited
- it only covers private study and news reporting basically.  It's
designed to protect academics and journalists.  It doesn't cover
making backups, modchipping or any of those other things.

There is an exemption in the 1988 CDPA specifically dealing with backup
copies which says that "a lawful user of a copy of a computer program
may make a back-up copy of it which is necessary for him to have for the
purpose of lawful use".

AIUI just as with the US Fair Use provisions it's not clear whether this
is a right or a defence.  So if someone physically prevents you from
making a backup, I don't believe you can force them to allow you to do
so.  And if making the backup infringes other laws, then you've still
broken those laws.

doug.

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