Status of Cryptography Research in implementation of the EUCD

[Julian T J Midgley]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2002, Adrian Midgley wrote:

> On Wednesday 14 August 2002 14:01, Owen  wrote:
>
> > there should be no absolute privilege above the law (of
> > copyright infringement) for 'academic researchers. If such privilege should
> > be granted, why just to academics? Who is an academic?
>
> ...
>
> > In truth, matters are but rarely clear cut and, in general, it is a mistake
> > to put any class of person above the law based on argument that matters are
> > absolute.
>
> Nicely put and argued and I think true.

Owen's point (that arbitrary groups shouldn't be placed above the law) is
a reasonable one, and generally true.  However, in the case when the law
being implemented is neither strictly necessary[0], nor a particularly
good one, there are valid reasons for exemptions for certain activities.
Indeed, the traditional law of copyright is full of such exemptions,
classed together under the heading of "fair dealing", for example, and the
different set of rules that apply to librarians, those making copies for
the purposes of instruction or examination, etc.

So I find Owen's dismissal of the right of academics to exemptions from
the proposed laws on circumvention somewhat glib.  Furthermore, Owen's
opinion isn't strictly relevant in this case.  The point is that the
Directive itself /requires/ that cryptographic research not be hindered,
and that the UK implementation does not appear to ensure that such
research isn't hindered.

Julian

[0] The regulations concerning technical protection measures dissociate
the act of cirumvention from the act of copyright infringement; if
copyright isn't infringed, there should be no reason to prosecute, and if
copyright is infringed, then the infringer can be prosecuted for
infringement - there's no need to prosecute additionally for
circumvention.

The whole raison d'etre for the law is suspect in the first place - the
record industries claim that they need to prevent online piracy to protect
their profits, yet their profits increase year on year.

-- 
Julian T. J. Midgley                      http://www.xenoclast.org/
Cambridge, England.                          PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F