DRM ban in France

DRM ban in France
Information Techology and the Law (course blog from Princeton), publication date: 24 April 2005
"The consumer had purchased a DVD featuring the movie and tried to make a private copy on videocassette so that he could watch the movie at his mother%u2019s house. According to French law, making a private copy of a purchased DVD is fair use and thus the consumer was denied his fair use by the DRM technology used on the DVDs. However, the court used a different argument to justify the ban. Namely, the court%u2019s decision was mainly based on findings that the DVD packaging was misinforming the user. The court explained that although the term %u201Ccopying is prohibited%u201D (copy prohib?e) was on the package, it was printed out in small letters and was not explicit enough. Accordingly, the court ordered that the producers of the movie remove the DRM on the DVDs within one month. "