RE: Educational by-pass

> Does anyone know the current state of the "educational" 
> exceptions to the EUCD? I seem to recall something about a 
> clause that required content providers to provide bypass 
> technology to educational users, and that you would have to 
> apply to the Home Secretary's office to get this.

Right holders are supposed to come to "voluntary" agreements with EU
member states to make sure that citizens can still make use of their
national exceptions. In the UK, if this doesn't happen, users and groups
of users can complain to the Secretary of State at the DTI. The Patent
Office will then investigate, and if necessary the SoS will give the
right holders directions on what they need to do to comply. If they
ignore these directions, they can be sued for breach of statutory duty.

Without the Regulations to hand, I can't remember the exact way that
5.2(c) and 5.3(a) (the relevant exceptions in the EUCD) are implemented,
but they will be subject to this general rule.

> Is anyone successfully making use of this? Can educators (and, IIRC,
> archivists) get macrovision-free DVD players or DVDs, for instance?

Too soon after the Regulations passed for this procedure to be used yet.
A right holder could supply an educational user with an unprotected DVD,
or they could allow one protected copy to be made by educational DVD
players... I don't think they'll be handing out macrovision-free players
any time soon :)