Question regarding applicability of UK's EUCD to ebook format convertor for use by the visually impaired

This is my first post and I've tried my best to make it palatable.

There is a program called Convert Lit, which bypasses the Digital Rights Management 5 software developed by Microsoft, for Fair Use purposes. The program is being distributed from the UK because it is illegal in the USA under the DMCA (it decrypts the ebooks).

The UK's EUCD is going to come into enforcement on the 31st of October 2003. It will most likely make Convert Lit illegal for distribution from the UK.

However, there is a use for the program above either fair use or even piracy. This statute (1st paragraph) from:

        http://www.patent.gov.uk/copy/notices/2002/royal.htm

"The 'one-for-one' exception: The first exception provides for a single
accessible copy of a copyright work to be made by or on behalf of a visually impaired person for their personal use, subject to a number of conditions. For example, the visually impaired person must have lawful possession of, or be able to lawfully use (such as in a reference library), an (inaccessible) copy of the copyright work and an accessible copy of that material must not be commercially available. This exception also does not permit a visually impaired person to keep an accessible copy where they have transferred the inaccessible copy to someone else, although it may be possible to transfer both copies together."

I read this as making it legal for a visually impaired person to use such software, if they can use it to make one copy of a work which is inaccessible. A "commercially available" paper book can be classes as inaccessible because it requires scanning.

The Microsoft Reader ebooks are inaccessible because they can only be read from a screen and are encrypted so the text cannot be fed into a speech synthesis reader. Microsoft have made an attempt to make their books accessible and exempt with the Text-to-Speech utility, however this does not comply with the above law (my emphasis in asterisks):

        http://www.microsoft.com/reader/support/faq/accessibility.asp

"Once the necessary components are installed, you can use the
Text-to-Speech feature to listen to many eBooks using a synthetic speech engine. Note that the Text-to-Speech feature is *not enabled for copy-protected eBooks*"

Because the above statute's makes no distinction between a copyrighted work that has no protection (such as a book), and one that does (such as the "copy-protected ebook", it should be legal to use Convert Lit to convert these copy-protected ebooks into plaintext to use with a speech synthesiser (a blind friend of mine uses such software on his PC). It is my opinion that Microsoft have no legal right in the UK to enforce this restriction, and little moral right. I am very pro-accessibility and honest and do not believe in pirating ebooks.

I would like to distribute the software myself (it is freely distributable) from a UK-hosted website for use by the visually impaired, but would like to make sure my case is solid before doing so. I appreciate the expert opinions of the people on this list.

Convert Lit is an important expression of fair use principles and I do not want people to throw up their hands and say "This is now illegal" without thinking through all the legal possibilities.

My question for the mailing list: is my argument flawed, or am I correct?

Jeremy Smith.

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|   Jeremy Smith BCS member  |   Direct Music Access   |   England 
|                          Software Developer and Musician