MPAA Countersues 321 Studios 315
Squash writes "321 Studios, makers of DVD X-Copy, is being Counter-sued by the MPAA. You may remember them filing suit to allow thier software to be produced and sold. Interesting point: the MPAA wants to claim all profits from sales of the software, which is now being bundled with some DVD burners."
Dual Layer DVDs (Score:2, Interesting)
They are profiting off of others free programs! (Score:5, Interesting)
The stolen software is as follows:
Smart Ripper
DVDx
VCD Easy/CD-Maker
PowerCDR
Re:I want to be able to backup my DVD's... (Score:5, Interesting)
Come on... who would buy this software just so they can make personal use backups ?
I would. A 1337 wizard might be able to coax software to make a copy of a DVD, with much agony, but I can't.
I do recall these exact same arguments being made against floppy disk copying. Then, God No! -- VHS tape copying. Then the horror of horrors, CD copying.
And you know what? Hollywood makes more bucks on VHS and DVDs than they do on ticket sales. Software companies are not out of business.Hollywood is not out of business. Microsoft's stuff was infinitely copyable, for instance, yet they stashed 40 billion in the piggy bank.
DVD copying will do nothing to "intellectual property owners". This is a red herring, and an excuse to steal legally ALL the money from all sources possible. This is about greed and marketing a "crime wave" that nobody seemed to notice until the RIAA and MPAA and the SPA bought newpeople and legislators to make one.
Yeah, I want to copy a DVD. Someday, I may even copy a rental DVD, too, But I have to rent it first, and I wouldn't have bought it anyway. There will be no "theft" involved. I won't break into their office and steal their movies. I'd destroy the copy, or just toss it after watching, but after watching these pirates try to steal 123's profits, I think I'll hang onto any copies I make. If the MPAA acts like thieving bastards, then I'll be damned if I'll contribute to their profits in the DVD arena. Being a bastard can cost you profit$, too.
And doesn't Hollwood get an extorted cut of all DVD media sold anyway? They get paid for the blanks, then sue for the use of the blanks... are we so stupid we swallow their utterly dishonest presentation of "theft"? I guess so.
Re:i cant copy my own dvds? (Score:4, Interesting)
FINALLY - FAIR USE WILL BE TESTED! (Score:5, Interesting)
As we've all read a thousand times, this is no different than the movie studio's rabid reaction to the introduction of VCR's - a product that can duplicate video media and *might* be used for piracy.
This is the fight we've been waiting for: Fair Use vs. the DMCA. Only one will be left standing.
(So I'm being a little dramatic, sue me, I realize that the DMCA has a crapload of other stuff that will remain even if parts of it are struck down.)
it's cheaper than that, and harder, too (Score:3, Interesting)
As for "just copying bits", DVD's use messy storage format and drive interface. See this link [uni-goettingen.de] for more information.
And, as usual, some little utility like that does require you to shell out $50-$100 on Windows.
Re:Dual Layer DVDs (Score:1, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Keep it up.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:i cant copy my own dvds? (Score:4, Interesting)
What we have lost is a sense of honor and selflessness in corporate culture. It has become about money and nothing more, and that is why we have this situation we have today. A corporation founded only on making money is likely to be a bad one. A corporation which is started to work toward a dream or a goal (other than simply making money) is likely to be a good company that people like. Take Jobs and Wozniak for example, they had a dream of a computer in every home. But eventually a company ends up in the hands of the greedy, or those who start it end up that way. What we need is to build into our social norms a way to recognize this and replace such individuals with those who again are aiming as much at a goal or dream as they are at simply squeezing every last dime out of consumers. More progress will be made that way at less human cost.
Re:They are profiting off of others free programs! (Score:1, Interesting)
I'm sure that you use ogg123 and mpg123 and nothing else?
It stands for disk duplicator (Score:2, Interesting)
This isn't a cracking tool. *It leaves the CSS intact.* It's a *duplication* tool. The copy cannot be played on any device that could not play the source disk. It complies in every respect with the standard. Thus it's a perfectly valid copy tool that does not even violate the DMCA, since no attempt has even been made to circuvent the copy protection.
The very idea that someone might simply copy the copy protection appears to have been an idea totally foreign to the mindset of the media types who believe that anyone who copies anything for any reason is a "pirate" raping and pillage them and their families.
All *I* want is a backup disk as legally provided for in fair use law. An *exact* duplicate gives this backup disk while violating *no* law. As I said, not even the DMCA.
KFG
KFG
Re:i cant copy my own dvds? (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe you are talking about CANCOPY [library.ubc.ca]. This is normally applied to books borrowed for your educational use, and to photocopied handouts given to students.
Otherwise, my local library explained to me that with a map book I needed to copy, published by the government, but copyrighted, and no longer published, I would have to choose up to 25% of the book I wanted to copy.
Making a copy of a book you own for personal use would be difficult unless you own your own copier, since Kinko's, etc. will kick you out for trying to copy a whole book (I suggest you copy 100 pages at each shop -- I did this because I had a book stolen from me that was no longer available). I doubt it's illegal, though.
Someone needs to repeal copyright law on all government documents, though.
On DVD Renting (Score:4, Interesting)
Anyway, the idea comes from that ROM-trading system mentioned a month or two ago. The idea behind that was: people have actual media, and in order to trade it, they send people the files, during which time their media can't be used- just like trading with someone who lives by you, only without the lives by you part.
So I figure if what I own when buying a DVD isnt media, but a license, why not rent out that license instead?
So here's the proposal: Buy a DVD, put it on a shelf, keep track of how long you spend Not watching the movie.
Then rent out the license for the time you arent using it.
If a DVD is a license, not media, you don't have to worry about where the physical media is in order to use the license. If I buy a DVD, go on a trip out of state, and download a rip of the DVD to watch while I'm gone, it's just as legal as making a copy of a movie on VHS and taking that with you on a trip- everything's fine as long as no one is watching that other copy at the same time. Rights are intangable, so your Rights stay with you wherever you go. Rights also dont need to stay in touch with the rest of the world's time. If I'm licensed to see 30 minutes of a slug beating a mormon to death with a petrified woodpecker, I can watch 10 minutes now, 10 minutes later, and save that extra 10 minutes for a friend of mine whom I wish to torment.
DVD's, though, have no time limit. You could put one in your drive now and keep the thing spinning until the drive wears out or the disc disintegrates beyond readability. Fortunatly though, if either of those happen, you're still allowed to watch the movie: a DVD is a license, not a media.
So, there's no time limit, Rights stay with you wherever you go, and rights dont have to follow time in a straight line.
Plenty of people have DVDs which have been sitting on their shelves unwatched for months. That could have been 720 showings of the movie, all of which remain unseen. What happens to those showings? Well, you're licensed to have viewed them whether you did or not, why not sell them?
License Rental can enable thousands of otherwise ilegal viewings to become legit, all at an affordable price. And there's really no drawbacks.
Before commenting on anything I just said, please note that I am aware that I am not familiar with the subject matter I am typing about. I really couldnt give a shit whether anything I said was true or not. The post was meant only to get people thinking. Whether those thoughts are intelligent or not is up to the person doing the thinking. I dont care if they are, the real point is for someone to look at this and go "That's completely wrong.
You may have noticed the actual topic of this post ended abruptly. I wish to assure you that this was because I stopped typing on the subject.
Re:i cant copy my own dvds? (Score:3, Interesting)
Technically, you can't. In order to decode CSS, a licensed player needs to read the appropriate disc key off the disc. The keys are stored separately from the main content of the disc. Either normal DVD-Rs do not have a writable disc key area or normal DVD recorders do not allow you to write to it; I forget which, but the result is that you cannot usefully copy a DVD at home without getting around CSS. Which, of course, is the point. DVD X-Copy apparently gets around this by loading licensed player software and using it as a CSS decoder.
Re:As a guy who doesn't like guns I'd just like . (Score:1, Interesting)