Lawsuits Force 321 Studios Out Of Business 465
elegie writes "321 Studios has gone out of business. Earlier, they came under fire for producing DVD disc-copying software. Specifically, it was argued by movie studios that the DVD-X Copy software and the DVD Copy Plus software violated the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) anticircumvention rules. 321 Studios argued that copying a DVD disc for personal use counted as "fair use" in terms of copyright law. The EFF has said that the closing was not surprising because of all the legal injunctions against 321 Studios."
Open source? (Score:5, Interesting)
no surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
So how about releasing the code? (Score:5, Interesting)
From their FAQ (Score:5, Interesting)
How long until 321 will be required to hand over their customer list (at least the ones that registered)? If they can force this company out of business, it seems to me the next step is to go after the users. You know, the ones doing the acutal "law breaking".
Dangerous precedant (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really newsworthy... (Score:3, Interesting)
Serves'em Right (Score:1, Interesting)
Well there are alternatives (Score:2, Interesting)
Theoretical right to fair use (Score:5, Interesting)
From NewScientist [newscientist.com]
Backups not legal? (Score:5, Interesting)
Some have argued that fair use would allow making backups of general content, but since such usage is not educational or for research purposes, and would have commercial impact, it seems like a weak argument to me. In any case, it has never been confirmed in the courts.
They went out of business in the "US" only (Score:5, Interesting)
As usual (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:From their FAQ (Score:2, Interesting)
If you use peerguardian and 321 Software you will notice that the program does not work because it blocks reporting to the 321 sites. This means that not only do they have a legal list of registered users that have bought it, but they also have a list of IP's of all the people who have burned a movie. While I have not checked what these packets contain, I can only assume they have a whole list of any thing that any one has ever copied...
Other solutions (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So how about releasing the code? (Score:5, Interesting)
If someone tells you otherwise it's time to a) write your Congresscritter a nice note or b) burn down a building or two. You didn't hear b) from me though
Re:no surprise (Score:3, Interesting)
I still think they should open-source the software.
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possible know..."
At least then they'd have more incentive to find other ways to close down an operation they dislike such as with money or negotiations rather than lawyers and the courts.
Re:This is probably a good thing. (Score:5, Interesting)
The PATRIOT act put into law many things for which the legal system had already set precedent in one form or another; there was just no codification of these items into law until a moment of panic ensued and *whoosh* along come laws that certain members of law enforcement have been trying to get through for years. Along comes a limitation on freedom in exchange for the perception of heightened safety.
I see internet-related regulation going in much the same fasion. The obvious answer with this one, however, lies with all of us: don't do illegal shit and no one will have to pass these laws. Stop using P2P to share copyrighted works. We have already gotten ourselves in enough trouble with the DMCA, don't let it go any further.
321 Studios has a bastard brand: 123 Copy DVD (Score:5, Interesting)
If you wish to see how damn clever they are, they do not actually include de-cryption software in the product. They do however link directly to a "3rd Party Plugin" site which features a downloadable plug-in which works exclusively with 123 copy DVD.
Talk about legal maneuvering!
Re:Now how else will I back up my movies (Score:2, Interesting)
I know, the Slashdotters of the world are like 0.001% of the movie buying market and business would go on as usual, but principles matter.
They matter even more when the other side has none. Take the lawsuits that the idiots in the Directors Guild of America (DGA) have filed against Clean Flicks. Morons!
Freedom of speech also means that if I want to see "Jay and Silent Bob Strike BacK" without hearing FUCK every thirty seconds then that is my right.
Naturally I'm a doofus for wanting to watch that POS flick in the first place, but hey, it's America!
Re:Grrr, but ok (Score:2, Interesting)
GPL?? (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, one can easily argue that there are other apps that do (IMHO) a better job and are free (like DVD Shrink), but being as high-profile as their company has been the last few months, being that they sell their products in retail stores, a move like that might garner some pretty serious publicity and would surely ruffle the feathers of their adversary.
Even though the cat has been out of the bag for a while regarding CSS, them sending out copies of sourcecode would surely have social/emotional impact.
My guess is that someone there would probably be sent to jail for further violating the DMCA (not only making an anti-circumvention tool that people can use to backup and *gasp* copy DVDs, but giving a bunch of "no good hackers and pirates" the ability to modify the software for other nefarious purposes (oh no!)). But I'm sure there's a way they could get around the law to do it.
Re:I can't stand it (Score:5, Interesting)
Stalking is illegal. The seller has no right to monitor your use after you leave their shop. The grocery store does not have terms of use on knives. The drugstore does not have terms of use on aspirin. The hardware store does not have terms of use on power-nailers. The sporting goods store does not have terms of use on baseball bats.
A sale with "terms of use" is a rental, not a sale. Auto agencies of "terms of use" on car rentals. Contractor stores have "terms of use" on equipment. Landlords have "terms of use" for property. It may be a rental with an unspecified time limit, but it is still a rental. Violation of a rental agreement is a civil matter which requires the renter to retain legal counsel and compile a case.
What is the difference between "licensing" and "renting", other than a legal manipulation by which the renter has passed the financial burden of legal counsel and making the case onto the taxpaying public?
With INDUCE Act this will become a common story (Score:5, Interesting)
Go to EFF's Action Center [eff.org] and savetheipod.com [savetheipod.com] to take action! Let your Senators know that they should be supporting Rep. Boucher's DMCRA [house.gov] rather than INDUCE.
We can turn the tide here if we take action!
Re:321 Studios has a bastard brand: 123 Copy DVD (Score:3, Interesting)
Of course, the point is moot in the long run, if DVD Shrink works the way I've heard it does. The MPAA is showing massive shortsightedness here. 321 at least made some efforts to put some warnings in, added a screen indicating that what was there was a copy, and would not support copy-of-a-copy making. I've been told DVDShrink has none of these limits.(Anyone using it care to correct me?) So, after you sue the people making money off trying to be legal out of business, how do you deal with the people who are giving the stuff a way and don't care whether it's legal or not?
Re:Open source? (Score:5, Interesting)
Since when is the general public, which houses the majority of public opinion, capable of critically evaluating anything more complicated than a diluted press release?
There is a reason that news is written on such a sophomoric level and the major "news stations" attempt to cram all of their "information" into short, sixty second blurbs between their bickering guests and stunningly imbecilic hosts. People these days have no critical thinking skills at all. They have to be told what to do in the simplest possible terms. If they actually had to make their own daily decisions on any level above that which should be expected of a three year old, most of them would probably die.
Given all of this, how do you figure that the public will be smart enough to say "wait, these open shorts people are just protecting my rights to do with my DVDs as I please! This MBA A group is just an evil congolomerate attempting to stifle my use of my own personal property!" The MPAA will simply come out and brand anyone distributing the tools as dirty, filthy pirates, blame them for rate hikes, and continue rolling in the dough while the mentally retarded herd that is most of the developed world goes about its job of being obliviously fleeced by every major corporation and government on the planet.
That doesn't even take into consideration that these idiots have probably never even heard of 'open source', the 'MPAA', 'CSS', or, most important, their own fair use rights in anything more than the most superficial manner.
Re:Open source? - PROOF? (Score:2, Interesting)
TAKE action /. the vote (Score:3, Interesting)
The recent events of orin hatch [slashdot.org], DMCA shinanigans [slashdot.org] have just gone too far. there are allot of people on
1. Register the domain www.nomoreorin.org and use it for a organizational starting place to campaign against his reelection
2. Gather all of the evidence and bills that he is against peoples rights and is in the pay of the *aa
3. Work to form a grass roots party in his hometown to make sure that he is defeated buy a landslide in the next election.
4. Try to set up rallys and protests in his community with pamphlets that say
1. Your senator wants to outlaw your VCR, Tivo, DVR
2. Your senator wants to outlaw your computer
3. Your senator wants to put viruses and destroy your computer if you do something he doe sent approve of
4. Your senator helped to put an innocent Russian Civilian in jail without due process over writing an essentially legal program.
5. Your senator wants to remove your rights to make backup copies of movies and software that you already own
6. Your senator cares more about the *aa than the people who elected him
7. Your senator has accepted XXXXX$ from these *aa groups
5. Next target any and all politicians that have shown support for the DMCA, INDUCE or have received an money from the *AA
6. If we send a message to the government that clearly states that
1. If you accept any money from the *AA we will see to it that your political career is destroyed.
2. Supporting any bill that restricts a users rights to media he owns will result in your not getting elected.
It is evidently clear that if we do not act now. your right to use a computer or any kind of audio and visual media will be severely restricted.
Depending on the replies to this post i will reserve and set up the
www.nomoreorin.org website.
and will do what i can to help a movement whose time have come
if you have any questions email me at
eric.aint.net (spam proof)
Re:Open source? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:From their FAQ (Score:2, Interesting)
Can a copyright violation be pursued by anyone besides the copyright holder? Since 321 Studios can no longer profit from the software, they have no incentive to go after pirates, and likely couldn't afford to even if they wanted to. My (possibly flawed) understanding is that, while it would be illegal for me to use a copy of the software copied from a friend, only 321 Studios would be able to take action against meif I were to do so.
Others here have mentioned they could be charged with contempt of court if they released the software as open source, but what if they just don't go after pirates?
Re:Open source? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Open source? (Score:1, Interesting)
I remember reading that 123's stuff did not have to re-encode, it worked by removing a specific type of packet or frame from the mpeg-stream so that it was both very fast and had as little possible quality loss because there was no render-reencode step.
Last time I looked at dvdshrink, it sure looked like it did do the render-reencode route.
Re:no surprise (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm only sorry that Robert Moore had to spend all his money on fighting this fight for us, instead of tricking out a Hummer.
Re:Terrabyte storage and playback (Score:3, Interesting)
Ditch the RAID card. Add some ordinary SATA controllers to your PC. Do software raid on linux, using an XFS, JFS, or ReiserFS filesystem. Get a motherboard with GigE onboard. This should keep your cost down dramatically, I think you could do the whole thing under $1500. 256MB would be plenty of memory but 512MB would allow for more caching.
A RAID controller is mandatory if your CPU is doing anything else on the system, but if all it's doing is providing NAS, then doing software RAID is the best way to go as it is a lot cheaper and dedicating a ~2GHz 32 bit processor to the job is going to be faster than the RAID controller anyway.
Re:Lesson. (Score:3, Interesting)
The body of law forms a substrate of complex and chaotic interactions that is perfectly consistent with a living ecology. As forces inpinge from the outside, populations and affiliations move, break, reform, and new structures are forever unfolding from this churning stew of law.
It might well behoove us, as a society, to bring experts on complex systems and organic structures, to help us grow a legal environment that is at once, healthy, sustainable, and insure those cultural caveates we hold most dear (i.e. personal freedom, personal responsibility, and civil equality.)
By engineering the ecology of law, we have a much better chance of protecting the system against whose forces we know ultimately cause ecological failure. It is time for our society to address a number of important issues that have been left to the ravages of entropy and gravity. If we don't become responsible for engineering ourselves and the societies in which we live, we cannot be surprised by the growing frequency of bad law, failed governments, wars, and all manner of human catastrophes. The amplification of technology, the increase of human population and global impact, demand that we look at the human condition with new eyes. These problems we now face are merely symptoms, and the symptoms will only become more pronounced, more severe if we ignore their root causes.
Genda
"In the end, they put you in the ground, throw dirt in your face, and go eat pizza... it's only while you breath that you have any power to make a difference... so what the heck are you waiting for?"