Reading a DVD with VLC or mplayer is now illegal in France
December 30th, 2006 by Samuel TardieuStarting tomorrow December 31st 2006, reading a DVD protected with CSS (as most DVD are) is illegal in France when it is done with a software allowing to circumvent the protection, such as VLC or mplayer which can both use the libdvdcss library. Today’s Journal Officiel (where laws and executive orders are published) says that you may be fined 750€ (around $985) for doing so. This includes watching any DVD that you have legally purchased.
Edit 2007-02-21: the fine is 750€, not 135€ as I wrote earlier! Thanks to the two people who pointed at this mistake in the comments.
December 30th, 2006 at 20:48
Y a pas à dire mon pays des droits de l’homme est vraiment un chouette pays où il fait bon vivre.
Pourquoi est ce qu’on fait de ce pays, un pays de merde ?
Et le pire c’est qu’on y est encore pour 5 ans…
December 30th, 2006 at 21:42
Roliticians betray their countries, it’s the same around the world.
Les politiciens trahissent leurs pays, c’est pareil autour du monde.
December 31st, 2006 at 0:20
The IP paranoia is hurting the world. Let me make this clear: The IP paranoia is hurting the world!
We, the normal people on this earth hate, despise and loathe you, who think you have a right to limit our music choice, limit the way we can use the inventions available to us, limit the hardware we have made or purchased, and at the heavy end of the scale, confiscate our things just to see if you can find something that may be a violation of YOUR laws, that nobody asked for.
Let me make on more thing clear: NO, it will not work. No, you will not succeed in limiting the majority of people in how they live their lives. There are alternatives, and there will be alternatives to come.
P.S. Anyone considering to install Windows Vista on a PC-like machine should read the articles describing how it WILL CRIPPLE your system as a preemtive measure to ensure you can not view HD content properly. It WILL CRIPPLE your machine even if you do not have any intention of pirating anything. IT WILL CRIPPLE your machine because it can, and because you let it be. Just having any copyrighted HD material on your machine WILL CRIPPLE it under the DRM of Vista.
Sorry for being so plain about this, simple is beautiful. RIAA sucks.
December 31st, 2006 at 1:08
Vista stands for Viruses Intruders Spyware Trojans and Adware (see http://theblog.europe2blog.fr/the_blog/images/vista.jpg)
Not to mention Vista eats too many system resources delivers no additional features (quite the reverse in my opinion)
Intelectual Property? Show me the deed for it.
Confiscate is just a fany word for theft. (Takeing something without the owners permission)
December 31st, 2006 at 6:03
Crap ! Software has changed the world and people must understand that in order to be successful in today’s world change must be adopted. Instead of putting restrictions, which can more often that not be circumvented, a different solution must be sought for and adopted. A software solution could be adopted for this software problem.
December 31st, 2006 at 11:44
[...] I don’t know how this will effect the distribution of VLC (if at all) but according to Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, “Starting tomorrow December 31st 2006, reading a DVD protected with CSS (as most DVD are) is illegal in France when it is done with a software allowing to circumvent the protection, such as VLC or mplayer which can both use the libdvdcss library.” [...]
December 31st, 2006 at 12:03
I think It coulb more than 135€, the law allow 750€ (~990$)
December 31st, 2006 at 12:05
Ludovic: only if you don’t pay the initial fine within a few months.
December 31st, 2006 at 12:25
OMG WTF France?!…
Ok, the title is a bit over the top but seriously, this is insane. At the same time, it doesn’t surprise me. According to “Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde,” Samuel Tardieu’s dual-sided blog, using a media player such as VLC or mPlayer to p…
December 31st, 2006 at 15:30
[...] Informatik : Reading a DVD with VLC or mplayer is now illegal in France publié au J.O. (tags: informatik justice privacy) [...]
December 31st, 2006 at 18:24
My Question and not to be wise really! Will this actually stop anyone, and how do they plan on catching you? Some type of call to home protection in every dvd now? This is a honest question.
December 31st, 2006 at 19:09
as usual the world is getting shittier and shittier….
December 31st, 2006 at 20:07
lolz, thats one useless law, and one corrupt government
December 31st, 2006 at 20:08
Good god, I thought we in the USA here had some stupid DRM rules, way to top us France!
Good thing I use Ubuntu and OSX now, buh bye billy boy and your crazy monkey named balmer
December 31st, 2006 at 20:16
I’m french and when i look at this news, i thinking there a fucking country where i live.
December 31st, 2006 at 20:44
“# gregf Says:
December 31st, 2006 at 6:24 pm
My Question and not to be wise really! Will this actually stop anyone, and how do they plan on catching you? Some type of call to home protection in every dvd now? This is a honest question.”
Exactly what I was wondering.
How soon before mpaa and their ilk start sending out scanbots to find libdvdcss on your machine so they can start spamming us with lawsuits?
Creepier every day, really.
Un mot -> merde.
December 31st, 2006 at 21:27
The funny thing is that VLC is developed mostly by people from one of the top elite engineering school (Ecole Centrale)…
December 31st, 2006 at 21:28
Catch me if you can!!!!!!!…… I see a “great” future of our world!! Welldone!!
December 31st, 2006 at 23:28
When will they learn that anti-piracy and stupid laws like this only hurt the legitimate users… It’s crap like this that only does more harm than good.
January 1st, 2007 at 1:23
[...] Reading a DVD with VLC or mplayer is now illegal in France Kein Kommentar… (tags: urheberrecht frankreich) [...]
January 1st, 2007 at 1:40
How does the French government plan on enforcing this law? If the government can’t enforce this law, there is no point of having it. And I don’t think that it can. (Not to mention that a €135 fine is hardly an effective deterrent).
January 1st, 2007 at 2:04
Ok #1 the software is still LEGAL its the playing off DVD’s that isnt. #2 The only way they would know is if another person reports them. #3 france sucks. Canada Rocks
January 1st, 2007 at 2:04
in regards to laws that is.
January 1st, 2007 at 5:42
So, I am from Europe with a large collection of European purchased DVDs now living in the US. I also own US Region 1 dvds. I run the DVD43 software on my computer so that my drives dont lock up when I switch between discs, (lock after switching regions 5 times). So why should that be illegal. I want to watch discs I legally purchased on a computer I legally purchased using software that of itself is not illegal.
Man, if I go shopping in the US but use a carrier bag I bought in Europe to carry it home, will that soon be illegal.
Olly.
January 1st, 2007 at 5:44
I am so sick of these old paranoid dinosaurs talking about technology that they do not know anything about. This crap stupid law better not come to the U.S , well it may after all the Dummy Repiblicans are in power, so anything could happen, but me for one I bought my computer so I choose to do what ever I want with it and all of these old dinosaurs better just bite a big one because us the geeks run it and we will until we throw dirt over those old AZ dinosaurs pigs, so I say keep using VLC like I am going to and if a old idiot says something so what because you payed for your pc and the stinken gov did not, so use it how you choose because I will until and after the dirt is poured on my geeky grave. VLC til the end. dinosaurs shut-up!
January 1st, 2007 at 10:21
This doesn’t make any sense… Are they seriously expecting the average end user to be aware how the application they’re using might interact with the dvd’s copy protection? I use VLC because it works fine both on windows and osx and have yet to find a video format it cant play “out of the box”, not to crack dvds…
What’s next? Banning operating systems because they allow users to use software that could possibly be used to circumvent a DVD’s copy protection?
Maybe in a few years from now they’ll come up with a law that makes it illegal to watch a dvd movie on a computer unless you’re using windows media player, running windows vista and using an hdcp monitor…
January 1st, 2007 at 10:32
RIAA == Racketeers Industry Assoc of America.Vista is intended to take your rights away.Whole crap!Just do not buy DRMed shit!Return it to shops and require vendors to properly publish info about DRM systems involved (like CSS is).Wtf I should buy something unknown, then discover my rights were crippled without warnings?Is this legal?DRM should be illegal, because it ignores basic law principle: “everyone is innocent unless proven guilty”.Duh.Why not just jail everyone because “he\she can theoretically kill someone in future so we better about to jail ‘em all”?That’s how DRM works.Why they can ignore law principles and we’re can not?Laws should be equal to anyone.But today, laws are protecting media mafia only, not even composers or musicians or programmers or whoever else, just media racketeers corporations are protected but they’re should be ELIMINATED ’cause they’re just bunch of racketeers :\
January 1st, 2007 at 13:59
[...] Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Juha [...]
February 17th, 2007 at 11:25
Politicans aren’t so smart in France I guess :S
February 21st, 2007 at 19:37
The APRIL has filed a case to the Council of State (Supreme court in the administrative order) to have that executive order canceled. I’m planning to write a post on that. Unfortunately guys, it will be in French. See:
http://www.april.org/articles/communiques/pr-20070221.html
for more information about this.
Sam, I’m afraid the price for this is 750 Euros. This is a “Contravention de 4ème classe”, and you can get the “discount price” only if a specific executive order says so. It is not the case so far, as you can see in article 529 and R48-1 of the penal procedure code.
February 21st, 2007 at 21:32
GroM: you’re right. I’ll edit the post.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:01
Wow. Why can’t you do what you want with a dvd that you legally bought?
April 29th, 2008 at 13:11
because of stupid law
August 5th, 2008 at 17:54
This doesn’t surprise me at all, and I’m sure it doesn’t surprise the majority of us who have to endure the ridiculous European Union lawmakers. Yes I know this is a French Government law, but it is the same people in power in Paris who are supporting the fools in Brussels.
I am one of the few pro European supporters who live in the UK (yes there are a few EU supporters here), but every time we get a law passed like this it makes the job of us becoming more involved with the politics of Europe much more difficult.