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NFL, MLB Support Ruling Against DeCSS
Chuck Fu writes "Both the NFL and Major League Baseball submitted their brief today in support of the lower court's ruling against DeCSS,
stating that DeCSS
'threatens to destroy the legitimate marketplace for works of art, music, film, software, literature and other video programming
(including sports programming), and will deter the development and distribution of new works in state-of-the-art digital media.'
ZDNet and
CNet
has the story."
Obviously, I'm sure these sports organisations only know what the MPAA has told them about DeCSS.
This case is pretty much the only reason I have DeCSS on my computer, I don't have a DVD-Rom and the DVD Player I do have is a different region than the DVDs I have (which annoys me to no end).
Also:
Unchecked, such piracy threatens to destroy the legitimate marketplace for works of art..."
Yes, because everybody on the net is a pirate. Gimme a break, I don't see the Recording Industry going down in flames because of "piracy".
Hmm...
MLB has claimed ownership of all facts (statistics) resulting from their 'performance art' They wanted to charge the media for the right to report game scores (as an anti-fan I considered this vindication in claiming that sports isn't news)
The NFL took to trademarking the names fan groups applied to themselves - so they could charge the fans in direct proportion to their enthusiasm (being an anti-fan, I of course applauded this move - soak the fans for enough and they will eventually get a clue)
An important point to remember is that the sports cartels do spend most of their time dealing criminals and 'morally challenged' individuals. These people - which is what the sports cartels base their opinions of everyone else on are known as 'players', 'agents', 'media', and 'lawyers'. Given the nature of these people it is easy to understand how the sports cartels are concerned about the billions of dollars they are losing illegal viewing of their 'performance art'.
All these talk of 'performance art' has reminded me - when will we be seeing the briefs from the real performance artists (pro wrestling). After all, they do have real money at stake here.
You either believe in rational thought or you don't
These guys are probably doing more than just parroting the Jack Valenti. The NFL was a big player in the lawsuit that shut down iCrave. The Canadian website was webcasting TV shows, including football games, that it received from US TV station broadcasts.
I don't know that the NFL or MLB release any DVD's yet (though they do put out greatest highlights and season retrospectives on VHS), but I'm sure they are very aware of the potential damage to their traditional revenue stream that new technology poses. It's unfortunate that they, like the RIAA and the MPAA, choose to fight progress with legal action, rather than try to embrace technology and fing new ways to make money that take advantage of it. But sports fans have long ago learned to live with the annoying, misguided, and down-right evil actions of sports team owners.
Don't forget that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
Whoa. Isn't the use of snippets Fair Use? (as opposed to an entire copyrighted work, which would mean replaying the entire game)
Not sure, but I've tried a few DVDs and DeCSS either couldn't decrypt them or the resulting files were corrupt. Although it did older DVDs just fine.