United KingdomCopyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, circumvention of technological measures
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, c. 48, ss. 296ZA to 296ZF
In force since .
A copyright and text and data mining (TDM) rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Access restriction
As of .
What it requires
- Do not do anything that circumvents an effective technological measure, such as encryption, scrambling or another access control or protection process, or a copy control mechanism, applied to a copyright work other than a computer program, if you know or have reasonable grounds to know that you are circumventing it.
- Do not manufacture for sale or hire, import otherwise than for private and domestic use, or in the course of a business sell, let for hire, offer, advertise, possess or distribute a device, product or component primarily designed, produced or adapted to enable or facilitate the circumvention of effective technological measures, and do not provide, promote, advertise or market a service whose purpose is to enable or facilitate it.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text, as of .
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Section 296ZB(1) and (2) make it an offence to deal in a device, product or component, or to provide a service, whose purpose is to circumvent effective technological measures; the offences reach the supply of the means of circumvention. On summary conviction the maximum is three months' imprisonment, a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both, and on conviction on indictment a fine or imprisonment for up to two years, or both (s. 296ZB(4)).
What this law does
Section 296ZA of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 applies where effective technological measures have been applied to a copyright work other than a computer program and a person does anything which circumvents those measures knowing, or with reasonable grounds to know, that he is pursuing that objective.
Section 296ZF defines technological measures as any technology, device or component which is designed, in the normal course of its operation, to protect a copyright work other than a computer program. Such measures are effective if the copyright owner controls the use of the work through an access control or protection process such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work, or through a copy control mechanism, which achieves the intended protection.
The person issuing copies of the work to the public or communicating it to the public, and the copyright owner or exclusive licensee, have the same rights against the person who circumvents the measures as a copyright owner has in respect of an infringement of copyright.
Section 296ZA does not apply where a person circumvents effective technological measures for the purposes of research into cryptography, unless in doing so, or in issuing information derived from that research, he affects prejudicially the rights of the copyright owner.
Section 296ZB makes it an offence to manufacture for sale or hire, to import otherwise than for private and domestic use, to sell, let for hire, offer, advertise, possess or distribute in the course of a business, or to distribute otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the copyright owner, a device, product or component which is primarily designed, produced or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures.
It is also an offence to provide, promote, advertise or market a service the purpose of which is to enable or facilitate that circumvention, in the course of a business or, otherwise than in the course of a business, to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the copyright owner.
A person guilty of either offence is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum, or both, and on conviction on indictment to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or both.
It is a defence for the defendant to prove that he did not know, and had no reasonable ground for believing, that the device, product, component or service enabled or facilitated the circumvention of effective technological measures.
Section 296ZD gives the person issuing or communicating the work to the public, the copyright owner or exclusive licensee, and the owner or exclusive licensee of any intellectual property right in the effective technological measures the same rights as a copyright owner has in respect of an infringement of copyright against a person who deals in circumvention devices, products or components or provides circumvention services.
Section 296ZE lets a person who is prevented by an effective technological measure from carrying out a permitted act issue a notice of complaint to the Secretary of State, who may then give directions to the copyright owner or exclusive licensee. Subject to subsection (9A), that remedy does not apply to copyright works made available to the public on agreed contractual terms in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them.
Sections 296 to 296ZF were substituted for the former section 296 with effect from by regulation 24(1) of the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003.
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