DVD copying software maker 321 Studios has closed its doors, driven out of business by a succession of court decisions that said its most popular product was illegal to distribute. Several courts subsequently ruled that even if consumers might have a theoretical right to make their own personal DVD copies, 321 Studios could not sell tools that would help them break through that copy protection.
DVD-copying trailblazer shuts its doors
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Since when is it necessary to break the encryption simply to image a DVD and burn a new copy? You don’t need to decrypt somthing just to copy it!
though the optical media format seems to be the optimal physical format. the question will be what is a person to do when they have a perfectly good movie that will not play on new boxes in 20 years because the box does not read.vob files or cannot decrypt CSS.
For the same reason, all knife makers should shut their doors. A knife’s primary use is to cut foods, but a knife could be (and has been) used by murderers to kill people.
Just move your business to some other country with a less restrictive government, with software it’s easy to do. Stupid decisions like these will just force companies to relocate and move jobs to other countries.
I understand the movie industrys interest in protecting their income but I don’t understand how the legal system can support these kind of arguments. It just doesn’t make any sense.
I know for certain that I’ve bought a lot more music and movies since it became easily accessable on the net. And I still haven’t seen any statistics that say that the sales has dropped.
How about focusing on making good movies? That’s why youre in the movie business right?
sigh
I believe this idea has precedent – didn’t OpenBSD move to Canada to avoid US laws regarding export of encryption technology? Of course, one would REALLY want to stay in business to go to such lengths; the logistics alone would deter most people from even attempting such a move.
So now your fair use right becomes theoretical…
Well, I personally coudn’t care less — I live in Russia 😉
You cannot be thinking of commercial DVDs. They are about 8-9GB (dual layered) while home burnable DVDs are a little less than 5GB (single layered). To fit it you will need a program to perform a DVD shrink. And that’ll need to access the contents logically rather than just physically (image) e.g. it needs to decrypt.
I writed them to join the open source movement, so they can claim the “educational purposes” for their softwares.
As for FairUse, they would been able to stay on the market…
Man in the street: 0
Brown shoes: 1
the rest of the world now has thriving IT economies .. europe, india, far east … such decisions serve to shoot themselves in the foor. which is fine if you fancy a world thats multi-coloured rather than usa-coloured. good new i think!
oh well I make perfect backup copies of the dvd’s I own using dvd backup to decrypt and dvd2onex to shrink down to fit on a standard blank 4.7 GB dvd. I guess if you want dvd copying software that works for free get a mac baby.
Don’t the powers that be realize that this will stop nobody? You can have ruling after ruling and it will mean absolutely nothing. If nothing else this will rekindle the fuel to copy more dvd’s. I’m so sick of “Big Brother” trying to rule our lives. What people do behind closed does is their business and I can guarentee you that DVD copying, mp3 trading and P2P will live on regardless of these stupid ass rulings.
“321 Studios could not sell tools that would help them break through that copy protection.”
Well, how about not selling the product, but just offering it for free then? =) They’re shut now and thats that… might as well just release it for us.
I guess if you want dvd copying software that works for free get a mac baby.
Macs are free now?
I guess if you want dvd copying software that works for free get a mac baby.
Or use DVD Shrink.
Because 99% of the movies put on DVD today come on a 9.5 GB disk and the recordable media is only 4.5 GB you have to compress it which means you can’t make a mirror copy.
In order to rip the movie from the larger disk and compress it to fit on the smaller disk you need to break the copy protection.
That is what DVD X Copy did, and did damn well.
DVD shrink and Nero working together make GREAT copies in Windows 2000 and XP. Just backed up a copy of Kill Bill 2. Perfect. 🙂 (Wasn’t gonna buy it anyway)
Then you go and buy a new copy. And if they don’t want you to buy it. Well, there are reasons for that too. Read 1984 to see what I mean.
DVD Decrypter does the same functions as DVD X-Copy and it’s free.
What I’m concerned about is now we no longer have the right to copy our own DVD’s. I do so only to keep my original one’s from getting worn or scratched. I do the same to tapes now I do so to DVD’s.
Personally I think this whole DMCA rule is just stiffling our rites as consumers to do what we want to do with our own products when we buy them.
” I writed them to join the open source movement, so they can claim the “educational purposes” for their softwares.
As for FairUse, they would been able to stay on the market…”
It doesnt matter if they join the Open Source movement or not they can no longer distribute the software. Open Sourcing a program like this that has been deemed illegal doesnt make it legal. People are doing a fine job of distribution over P2P’s and 321 Studios could go underground and distribute and enhance the software but I doubt we will see that happen.
My problem with this legal decision is that the Constitution places a time limit on a copyrighted work, however the DMCA has no time limits on circumvention of encrypted data, so in effect the DMCA is trumping the limited span clause on copyrights in the Constitution.
Companies want to rule our lives. It’s like companies in America have become the government!
The government only looks out for big business and the government makes most laws to help big business. Even policy is created globaly because of big business and business interests.
If we all reaped from it I would not mind it. But it’s getting worse and worse. Normal people get nothing in return. And unless you are rich you suffer.
Not everyone wants to be rich, (I know I don’t) I just want to enjoy what little I have anyway I want. It’s not like I am out starting a bootleg DVD store on the corner. I just want to make copies of what I pay for. When I loan a DVD to a friend I don’t want to worry about it coming back scratched up etc.
So tired of being pushed around.
DMCA (please thank your nearest congressman for this brilliant piece of work)
Thank you, drive through.
“didn’t OpenBSD move to Canada to avoid US laws regarding export of encryption technology?”
Nope, it was created and is still maintained in Calgary, Alberta
I’d like to see you play a copied DVD without the macrovision removed.
I am too upset to even comment. So… “Fair Use” doesn’t really exist.
“I’d like to see you play a copied DVD without the macrovision removed”
Easy, there are lots of DVD player on the market that you can disable the macrovision protection. As a carefull buyer, this is one thing to check on various websites such as
http://www.videohelp.com
As for myself, I have a DVD player (Philips DVP642)with the macrovision sticker on it, but it doesn’t seems work because my copies still have macrovision and they play just fine (note they don’t work on real macrovision enable DVD players)
Yanik
“Since when is it necessary to break the encryption simply to image a DVD and burn a new copy? You don’t need to decrypt somthing just to copy it!”
Because you are trying to move a movie stored on a dual layer disc (9.xGB) to a single layer disc (4.7GB). Unless you like swapping out discs (and I think you still have to decrypt it to span it anyway) you’ve got to increase the compression on the stuff.
The best site I have used is Afterdawn.com. They have SOOOO much info on DVD formats, ripping, backing up etc it’s not funny!
There is one thing about circumvention I just don’t get. Let’s pretend I have reverse-engineered CSS algorithm and built it into my own DVD watching program. According to DMCA, I have circumvented content protection measures. But wait: what do commercial software and hardware DVD-players do in order to play DVD? Right — they do THE SAME as my program does. But then all DVD players contain an illegal circumvention device!!!
Well, this sounds kinda silly… but can anyone clarify it for me?
The posting above is mine
That would really put a thorn in the DMCA’s craw!
Release the source code under GNU and make it open source!! Let others deploy the code.
A bit for bit copy of a DVD would not work, even with a dual-layer drive. Consumer DVD Media does not allow you to write to the part of the disc where CSS keys are stored.
The movie companies license (Or share) in hardware and software that decript the DVD just enough to watch it. Not enough to copy it or to burn it. Just enough to watch.
They license that software to companies like Win DVD for the purpose of playing only. If they find that you are using it to rip they will SUE your Arse!
Plus at the same time the movie companies make millions off the licenses alone.
“The movie companies license (Or share) in hardware and software that decript the DVD just enough to watch it. Not enough to copy it or to burn it. Just enough to watch.”
But my posting implies that I didn’t license THEIR software.
If you write your own DVD watching program without paying off the RIAA mafia, then you can end up in jail (just like a certain Norwegian teenager)
You said “But wait: what do commercial software and hardware DVD-players do in order to play DVD? Right — they do THE SAME as my program does. But then all DVD players contain an illegal circumvention device!!!
That is not true. It is legal because those companies that don’t own movie companies license the software and/or hardware to put in the DVD players we go out and buy.
Now, when you buy that device you in turn only licence the ability to play movies on it. If you modify it you are in reality breaking the DMCA. Just like if you use MS windows for any other purpose other then whats in the EULA you are breaking the license agreement and the law cause you don’t own that copy of Windows that you just paid $300 for. Just like you really don’t own that DVD you just paid $20 for.
If I remember correctly, the license to build a DVD decoder is $20,000 or so for the CSS, more if you need video playback and such. So you’d need at least that much to produce a least-common-denominator CSS decoder library that everyone could stick on their Linux systems.
Of course, perhaps some enterprising soul could do just that: buy a license, make an open-source-except-for-the-secret-parts library, and charge $5 or so for it.
Or like Turbo Linux you could strike up a license deal with someone who already has software like Cyberlink and then resell it like Turbo linux is.
They licensed Windows Media player codex from MS and Power DVD from Cyberlink. Linspire also has a deal to put the CSS in their DVD player they offer on their Click and Run. I don’t know about the other companies.
But my posting implies that I didn’t license THEIR software.
You would do something illegal (at least according to the american law). However, most manufacturers of standalone DVD players are paying royalties for the CSS decryption keys. They are not bypassing the copy protection algorithm: they are using it. These players would be illegal if they were bypassing the protection or if they were ripping the stream to another media as they don’t have the licence to do so… To my knowledge, 321 Studios didn’t had the licence to rip the stream to another media. Their software could also be used to strip that protection. That is why they were sued.
Hey look, I have not seen movies for a long time,
and guess what? I don’t care. These days the movies
are filled with special effects with little or no plot.
Sure, some movies are cool AND thought-provoking
such as the Matrix and maybe Men-in-Black…
Just boycott the movies and make sure the
movie industry feel the pain.
Matrix and Men In Black “thought provoking”? Hahahahahaha thanks for the laugh mate
I hate music, I hate videos, and the worse bit is I’m afraid that I’ll be sued one day for having an unlicensed clip or music stuck in my mind. Unlicense because I never buy the stuff, but inadvertently hear or see it on the streets. We’re all under their control! We cannot escape! You may as well get your serial number and check yourself into prison now while the lineups are short! Or maybe you can sue yourself on behalf of mega-corporations.
Maybe this is the chance for films from other places besides the mighty usa to setp in, ya know those weird films with subtitles? Maybe viewers should go for these movies, there are great films from europe, asia, and latin america. Maybe its time to boycott and break the only US company with the monopoly on film market in the world. (hollywood)
i am not allowed to use the inputs from my vcr as the connection point of my dvd player to my TV.
god forbid my tv has only one set of inputs.
so i just flashed the rom on my dvd player so that i can enjoy a fricking blockbuster rental.
and after having that experience of grief with legit copies.
i no longer feel bad about illegally copying videos.
hey treat me, their customer as a criminal, that i have to break the law to play back a legal video, i am going to be a criminal.
It doesnt matter if they join the Open Source movement or not they can no longer distribute the software. Open Sourcing a program like this that has been deemed illegal doesnt make it legal.
You’re wrong. As for DeCSS, LAME, XviD, etc, you can distribute the source code under GPL, for educational purposes, even if it breaks patents. You can’t distribute binaries, of course.
People are doing a fine job of distribution over P2P’s and 321 Studios could go underground and distribute and enhance the software but I doubt we will see that happen.
This is a pirate action: unacceptable. If the software is GPL, it can take some routines from FairUse (fairuse.free.fr)…
Yes, the GPL is a great weapon against the DMCA