The Paris Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court ruling that a right to private copy does not exist. Anti-copy technologies can be legally integrated into DVDs. The Court of Appeal says the ruling conforms to European and international copyright laws.

The ruling brings to a conclusion the so-called Mulholland Drive case where a user, unable to copy David Lynch's film onto VHS for his mother who did not own a DVD player, argued that anti-copy systems integrated in DVD discs were illegal as they prevent private-use copying.

In this case opposing producers Les Film Alain Sarde and Studio Canal to the national consumer defence organisation UFC Que Choisir, who took up the user's case, the Paris Appeal Court had originally banned the inclusion into a DVD disc of any anti-copying system on the grounds that it prevents consumers from exercising the right to make a copy for private use.

However, the initial ruling was eventually struck down the Cour de Cassation to the relief of Hollywood majors and content owners. Last week, reopening the case, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed that there is no such thing as a private copy made from a DVD because it undermines the normal market exploitation of a title.

Story filed 08.04.07