Portugal Bans Use of DRM to Limit Access to Public Domain Works

At EFF, we've become all too accustomed to bad news on copyright come out of Europe, so it's refreshing to hear that Portugal has recently passed a law on copyright that helps to strike a fairer balance between users and copyright holders on DRM. The law doesn't abolish legal protection for DRM altogether—unfortunately, that wouldn't be possible for Portugal to do unilaterally, because it would be inconsistent with European Union law and with the WIPO Copyright Treaty to which the EU is a signatory. However, Law No. 36/2017 of June 2, 2017, which entered into force on June 3, 2017, does grant some important new exceptions to the law's anti-circumvention provisions, which make it easier for users to exercise their rights to access content without being treated as criminals.

At EFF, we've become all too accustomed to bad news on copyright come out of Europe, so it's refreshing to hear that Portugal has recently passed a law on copyright that helps to strike a fairer balance between users and copyright holders on DRM. The law doesn't abolish legal protection for DRM altogether—unfortunately, that wouldn't be possible for Portugal to do unilaterally, because it would be inconsistent with European Union law and with the WIPO Copyright Treaty to which the EU is a signatory. However, Law No. 36/2017 of June 2, 2017, which entered into force on June 3, 2017, does grant some important new exceptions to the law's anti-circumvention provisions, which make it easier for users to exercise their rights to access content without being treated as criminals.