Finland has one of the hardest implementations of the EUCD copyright directive, and it is now being tested in the Finnish Court. Basically the law currently criminalizes decryption and bypassing of copy protection mechanisms. It also bans the distribution of decryption tools, and even organized debate of copy protection decryption. On the 25th of May the District Court of Helsinki ruled that decrypting the CSS protection, which is used on almost every DVD video disc, is not a criminal act.

The Court had some valid arguments in their decision, as they did not see the CSS as an effective copy protection mechanics, due to the fact that decryption tools are so widely available for the public. This ruling may have some interesting side effects, as Blu-ray and HD-DVD decryption tools become more widely available, then they cant be considered as effective protection mechanisms either?

The EUCD implementation in Finland has raised a lot of discussion as long as the issue has been on the table. Finland has very relaxed laws for consumers rights for fair use, and the law even defines that the consumer is entitled to make a reasonable amount of so called home copies of copyrighted products, such as CDs and DVDs. The EUCD is in great contradiction with this, as it criminalize the decryption of effective protection mechanisms, so the consumer cannot make his home copy without breaking the law.

The prosecutor has naturally appealed from the decision of the District Court and the case will now move to the appeals court.

Source: Tietokone (in Finnish)
Thanks to Afterdawn.com for the heads up.