German library allowed to crack copy protection

From the excellent EDRI-gram:

"The German national library (Deutsche Bibliothek) has negiotated a license with rightholders to legally circumvent copy protection mechanisms on CD-roms, videos, software and E-books. It seems this is the first library in Europe to have managed a voluntary agreement on the strict new anti-circumvention rules prescribed by the EU copyright directive of 2001 (2001/29/EC). Article 6 of the EUCD prohibits acts of circumvention, as well as the distribution of tools and technologies used for circumvention of access control or copy protection measures. Member States could choose between penal or civil sanctions for infringement. Germany has chosen penal sanctions, with large fines or a 3 year prison sentence for circumvention for a commercial purpose...

The German Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the German Booksellers and Publishers Association have agreed to allow the library to fulfil its legal obligation to collect and make available material for long-term archiving purposes. The agreement also allows the library to break digital locks on books and music for scientific purposes of users, for collections for school or educational purposes, for instruction and research as well as on works that are out of print. These duplications are subjected to a fee and possibly a digital watermark. Rightholders may either supply a lock-free copy of a work, but if not, the library may circumvent the protection."

From an education perspective this is a positive step, though I'm not familiar with the small print of the agreement, so there's still a caveat.

The report in the same issue that Rena Tangens from the German privacy-organisation FoeBuD is calling on all fans to boycott the World Championship because "the World Cup is being abused by sponsors and the surveillance industry to introduce snooping-technology and to spy on the fans" is a real concern. Unwelcome though this development is I don't hold out much hope of a boycott. And really that's the crux of the issue. If most of us are prepared to hand over sensitive personal data to anyone who asks for it and allow ourselves to be subject to detailed surveillance without question then we deserve what we get in terms of the consequences of loss of privacy. Not enough people really care. I won't be going to any of the matches in Germany but if Ireland happened to make it to the final...?