As far as I understand, the "anti-circumvention" provisions of the DMCA don't make exceptions for fair use, so it's illegal to circumvent copyright protection even if a fair use defense would mean you're not infringing the copyright.
From Wikipedia[1] ("1201" here refers to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions):
Although section 1201(c) of the title stated that the section does not change the underlying substantive copyright infringement rights, remedies, or defenses, it did not make those defenses available in circumvention actions. The section does not include a fair use exemption from criminality nor a scienter requirement, so criminal liability could attach to even unintended circumvention for legitimate purposes.
The DMCA does include exemptions that allow you to circumvent copyright protection in some circumstances, but these are pre-defined by the government every 3 years. I don't think "backing up e-books that you own" is currently exempted, the only thing I can find in that Wikipedia article that could maybe fit is this:
Literary works, distributed electronically, that are protected by technological measures that either prevent the enabling of read-aloud functionality or interfere with screen readers or other applications or assistive technologies, or for research purposes at educational institutions;
In other words: if you have an e-book that doesn't provide accessibility functions, you can crack it in order to be able to read it.
Not sure exactly what you mean, but it’s definitely on the books[1]. There’s also a decent body of case law around copying things you have access to (say, Sony v Betamax).
Fair use comes from Berne Convention §10 (snipet):
“It shall be permissible to make quotations from a work which has already been lawfully made available to the public…”
I guess OpenAI and Google use that to be able to build search and training ML-models.
Almost all countries in the world is bounded by that.
Fair use is just a defense if you have to go to court for a copyright infringement claim. So after you spend many thousands of dollars, you can claim fair use as one of your defenses. (In fairness, certain types of fair use are fairly well established so no one will probably take you to court within those guardrails.)
NAL, not legal advice, just my current understanding:
> after you buy it
Generally, yes. What you do with that digital copy might be illegal, but the download was legal. Using a torrent to download (and seeding) might still be illegal even if only as a means to copying.
> after you buy it on kindle
That's a more interesting question. Given that they only grant you a license, you're in gray/black territory. When they previously gave you the impression that you were making a purchase you might have been in gray/light territory, but ignorance is rarely an excuse.
> legalities vs practicalities
Once I had one of those torrent honeypots catch a neighbor seeding. Comcast wasn't very careful with their timestamps or enforcement (or maybe the lawyer wasn't), and it happened close enough to an IP renewal that I caught the flak. If you don't get a lawyer involved, they'll blatantly ignore your right to counter DMCA claims and just infantalize you with a sermon about not stealing from intellectual property owners, placing you on a list of problem customers and eventually cancelling service (that last bit never materialized because it was my IP and my devices after the incident, so I never had too many strikes).
What happens, exactly, if you "legally" pirate a book after you buy it on kindle? Who knows, but it might have negative consequences on par with actual enforcement as if you'd broken the law.
I don't believe that's the case. The DMCA makes it illegal to circumvent DRM, and does not make exceptions for fair use.
There are exemptions granted to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions every three years, but in general, e-books have not been exempted.
If you're just stripping DRM from your own purchased e-books, or are downloading a pirated copy from somewhere, it's unlikely that you'll get in trouble. But it's almost certainly not actually legal to do so.
(Of course, remember that if you're torrenting, you're also uploading, and the chances of you getting in trouble are higher... even if you disable your client's upload functionality.)
moefh|1 year ago
From Wikipedia[1] ("1201" here refers to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions):
The DMCA does include exemptions that allow you to circumvent copyright protection in some circumstances, but these are pre-defined by the government every 3 years. I don't think "backing up e-books that you own" is currently exempted, the only thing I can find in that Wikipedia article that could maybe fit is this: In other words: if you have an e-book that doesn't provide accessibility functions, you can crack it in order to be able to read it.[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...
tingletech|1 year ago
yojo|1 year ago
1: https://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-17-copyrights/17-usc-sect...
Finnucane|1 year ago
punnerud|1 year ago
I guess OpenAI and Google use that to be able to build search and training ML-models. Almost all countries in the world is bounded by that.
ghaff|1 year ago
hansvm|1 year ago
> after you buy it
Generally, yes. What you do with that digital copy might be illegal, but the download was legal. Using a torrent to download (and seeding) might still be illegal even if only as a means to copying.
> after you buy it on kindle
That's a more interesting question. Given that they only grant you a license, you're in gray/black territory. When they previously gave you the impression that you were making a purchase you might have been in gray/light territory, but ignorance is rarely an excuse.
> legalities vs practicalities
Once I had one of those torrent honeypots catch a neighbor seeding. Comcast wasn't very careful with their timestamps or enforcement (or maybe the lawyer wasn't), and it happened close enough to an IP renewal that I caught the flak. If you don't get a lawyer involved, they'll blatantly ignore your right to counter DMCA claims and just infantalize you with a sermon about not stealing from intellectual property owners, placing you on a list of problem customers and eventually cancelling service (that last bit never materialized because it was my IP and my devices after the incident, so I never had too many strikes).
What happens, exactly, if you "legally" pirate a book after you buy it on kindle? Who knows, but it might have negative consequences on par with actual enforcement as if you'd broken the law.
kelnos|1 year ago
There are exemptions granted to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions every three years, but in general, e-books have not been exempted.
If you're just stripping DRM from your own purchased e-books, or are downloading a pirated copy from somewhere, it's unlikely that you'll get in trouble. But it's almost certainly not actually legal to do so.
(Of course, remember that if you're torrenting, you're also uploading, and the chances of you getting in trouble are higher... even if you disable your client's upload functionality.)
Mindwipe|1 year ago