SlySoft, a company registered in Ireland, has released software that allows users to convert their own DVDs to formats they can watch on mobile phones, Playstation Portables, video iPods and similar devices.

This is one of the first examples seen in the wild of a "circumvention device" which bypasses the copy restriction technology contained in the DVD format - something that is illegal under the Irish law transposing the European Union Copyright Directive of 2001.

Those publishing DVDs now have the right to sue SlySoft for copyright infringement. Will they risk the bad publicity and possibility that Irish courts might set a precedent not to their liking?

SlySoft Software
http://www.slysoft.com/en/clonedvd-mobile.html

Guide to the EU Copyright Directive
http://www.fipr.org/copyright/guide/

Irish copyright law
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/ZZA28Y2000.html (s.370) http://www.entemp.ie/publications/sis/2004/si16.pdf

(Contribution by EDRI board member Ian Brown)