The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union issued a directive [link to directive 2001/29/EC] in May 2001 which deals with the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society. The directive states that EU member states shall provide for the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part. Read more... This means that member states will provide laws that include clear directions on what you may copy and what will be illegal. The main argument is that a digital copy can not be distinguished from the original. The copyright holder therefore is allowed to utilize any means to prevent you from creating a personal backup by any measures he thinks useful of as long as these do not affect the usability of the original. By circumvention of any of these measures you violate copyright law. Here is the main part of the EU directive which holds the key to the whole discussion: Member States shall provide adequate legal protection against the circumvention of any effective technological measures, which the person concerned carries out in the knowledge, or with reasonable grounds to know, that he or she is pursuing that objective. [§6; #1] The question is how law giving institutions in EU member states will interpret the technological measures; however it is clear that any attempt to copy is illegal nonetheless. A definition is given on technological measures: For the purposes of this Directive, the expression "technological measures" means any technology, device or component that, in the normal course of its operation, is designed to prevent or restrict acts, in respect of works or other subject-matter, which are not authorised by the rightholder of any copyright or any right related to copyright as provided for by law or the sui generis right provided for in Chapter III of Directive 96/9/EC. Technological measures shall be deemed "effective" where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process, such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective. [§6; #3] Private backups will mainly be affected by §6; #4 of the EU directive: The technological measures applied voluntarily by rightholders, including those applied in implementation of voluntary agreements, and technological measures applied in implementation of the measures taken by Member States, shall enjoy the legal protection provided for in paragraph 1. This is simply the explanation: if the copyright holder applies a technological measure to prevent you from backing up and you still do this is an illegal act. Currently german parliament and jurisdiction are reviewing local laws to be changed this summer. Effective punishment in discussion is 3 years custody or a financial fine up to half a million Euro. Furthermore the reporting on ways or software which enables individuals to back up will be unlawful and therefore will cease. It is only a matter of time. Sad but true... Discuss about this article in our Forums. Guests are welcome.