De | Fr | It

Links

Articles

Videos

Press

References

Contact

www.no-dmca.ch

803 Signatures collected, referendum failed

27. Jan. 2008

I want to thank all involved for their effords and for collecting the signatures. 803 signatures may not be enough to make a difference legally, but it shows that this is a topic concerning quite a lot of people (given the short time we had to collect).

The next law to make copyright worse for all of us is in the pipeline, and I encourage everybody to take an interest in the process of passing laws in switzerland, so it can be opposed on time and with success.

No Swiss DMCA

11. Dec. 2007

Referendum against the Revision of the Copyright act as of 5. October 2007

A dangerous law has been passed on the 5th October by both the Parliament and the National Council almost without resistance. The revision represents massive advances for legal protection of copy protection mechanisms.

It is my conviction that such technical copy protection measures are of no merit for the consumer and will ultimately also harm the content producers. A law that puts such measures under special protection is hence just as ill advised.

The foundation for Consumer protection saw no reason to start a Referendum against the Revision of the copyright act. The first broader exposure this topic received was by an Article on slashdot.

Referendum

If we collect 50.000 signatures, we can demand a public national vote that decides if this law goes into effect.

We have to collect these signatures before January 24th 2008. They have to be checked by the municipality of the respective signatory. The signature collection form

Article 39 of the new Copyright act

This article has been enhanced. It is the reason to take Referendum against the law.

Art. 39a Protection of technical measures

1 Effective technical measures for the protection of works and other protected objects cannot be circumvented.

2 Effective technical measures are defined as; Technologies and contraptions, such as access and copy control, encryption, distortion and other processing, which are suited and intended to, limit or prevent unauthorized usage of works.

3 Forbidden is: to produce, import, offer, sell, distribute, rent out, lend, advertise and posses (possession for commercial use) of any: Contraptions, products, parts and services which:

  1. intend to increase sales of, advertise or market things with the goal of circumventing effective copy protection measures.
  2. prime purpose is the circumvention of effective copy protection measures and have only limited commercial use; or
  3. are primarily designed, produced, customized or rendered in order to circumvent or ease circumvention of effective copy protection measures.

4 The prohibition of circumvention can not be applied to People who are primarily circumventing for the purpose of a legal use.

This means: It may be legal to copy works (within the framework of legal use) and to circumvent effective copy protection measures. However it is illegal to distribute or mention or hint at the means to do so.

How can you expect a consumer to make use of his legal rights to copy when others can't provide him or help him with getting the means to do so legally?

What can you do?

I appreciate all the help I can get at this point. There's too much to do and too little time to do it. I concede it is unlikely to succeed with the Referendum this late, but it has to be tried by all means.

Collecting Signatures