MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-05-17 |
| FROM | Ruben I Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] DVD Software takes a legal blow vs DMCA
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The World's No.1 Science & Technology News Service
Legal blow for DVD-copying software
12:54 16 May 03
NewScientist.com news service
Companies selling DVD-copying software received a legal blow on Thursday
when a judge hearing Hollywood's case against one firm said she is
"substantially persuaded" by previous cases that the software violates
the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The case against 321 Studios is being heard in San Francisco by District
Judge Susan Ilston, who said she aims to make her ruling quickly. A
consortium of movie studies, including MGM, Tristar, Columbia, Disney
and Universal, want an injunction to bar 321 from selling its product.
The software enables people to make perfect digital copies of films. The
movie studios argue this permits illegal copies to be made and
circulated, infringing their copyright. 321 says the software allows
people to make back-up copies of DVDs they have already paid for, and
want the case to go to trial.
A request for an injunction against five other software companies has
been filed in New York by the Paramount and 20th Century Fox movie
studios. Industry observers have said that these cases could make or
break the controversial 1998 DCMA legislation, which aims to stop people
breaking copy protection technologies.
After Thursday's partial summary judgement, Marta Grutka, a spokeswoman
for the Motion Picture Association of America said: "We think this is an
open and shut case." Rob Semaan, 321's Chief Executive admitted being "a
little bit discouraged" by the judge's statement, but said he thought
the arguments set out by his lawyers were convincing.
Compressed code
321 has been selling its DVD Xcopy software since the end of 2002, for
$100. It allows a DVD movie disc to be copied to a blank DVD, even
though the compressed MPEG code on the disc is usually digitally
encrypted using the Content Scrambling System. CSS makes conventional
copies unplayable.
But Xcopy does not hack the CSS protection, which would explicitly break
copyright laws. Instead it uses a conventional DVD ROM player to
unscramble the MPEG code for legitimate playback, and then sends it to a
temporary cache file on the PC's hard drive. From there Xcopy copies the
unscrambled MPEG code onto a blank DVD using a conventional DVD burner.
The software has had a major disadvantage. Most movie DVDs are pressed
on dual layer discs with about 9 GB capacity, while blank DVDs have only
4.7 GB capacity. So PC users need to span a DVD9 movie over two blanks.
However, the latest version of Xcopy, released just a week before the
latest court hearing, overcomes this problem. Extra compression is used
on the MPEG code as it is cached, so that the entire movie can be burned
onto a single blank DVD.
More on this story
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8 November 2002
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18 October 2002
For more related stories
search the print edition Archive
Weblinks
321 Studios
Motion Picture Association of America
Electronic Freedom Foundation
Protect Fair Use campaign
"Fragile and easily damaged"
The legal arguments filed by 321 fill 50 pages. They claim "DVDs are
fragile and easily damaged," and that movie studios "require customers
who scratch a disc or experience degradation to purchase a replacement
at full cost". This, argues 321, is why "fair use" should allow people
to make personal "back up" copies of DVDs. The latest Xcopy software
requires the user to click a declaration that the original movie is not
borrowed or hired.
In a possible glimmer of hope for 321, Judge Ilston was clearly troubled
by one legal point. If the DCMA stops people circumventing all copy
protection, what will happen in the future when copyright on a movie
expires, but the discs are still protected?
Wendy Seltzer, staff attorney for the digital rights pressure group, the
Electronic Freedom Foundation, said: "Fair use and the DMCA have been on
a collision course since 1998. The judge's ruling in this case will tell
whether fair use survives the crash."
Barry Fox and Damian Carrington
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