DRM debate

As the date of the implementation of the Enforcement Directive is closer, a discussion about DRM’s and their influence on the culture becomes hot. The Ministry of Culture is pushing it’s bill with changes to the Copyright Act which in the opinion of the Ministry is full compliant with the Directive, but in the opinion of many institutions and NGOs is not.

Against the changes are such institutions as the Society of the Polish Librarians, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (fine English page) which have published their negative opinions against the bill. Many of the bloggers in the comments compare the introducing the strict DRM protection to the process of the ‘land fencing‘ which happened in the UK in the 17’th century.

The Ministry also published recently some reports about the enforcement of the copyright law in Poland (sorry, just Polish) with the outline of the future actions. What is no surprise for me these governmental documents are full of round sentences with not much precise information what and when will be done.