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Australia Rules DVD's are Films, Not Software

Posted by michael on from the one-small-step-for-oz dept.

divereigh writes: "The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that an Australian Federal court has decided this case in favour of the Australian Video Rental Association. The Association had taken Warner Home Video to court for trying to classify DVD's as software and thus double the price for those sold into the rental market."

3 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. This once again proves... by cscx · · Score: 1, Redundant
    ...that the movie studios are evil.

    Now back to my evil plan of storing my data onto VHS tape and proclaiming it as "software"... heheheh...

  2. Re:It seems pretty strange to me since... by gilroy · · Score: 1, Redundant
    Blockquoth the poster:

    It seems pretty strange to me since DVD is an acronym for Digital V ersatile Disk...

    But, IIRC, the original acronym was Digital Video Disc...
    --
    The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
  3. Slashdotters clerarly DON'T read. by jea6 · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Let's all take a minute to go back and read the article people. This case was more about copyright law then about DVD movies as software (which they are, come to think about it - depending on your definition of hard/software and 'is' is.) When you consider how DVDs are distributed in the US, you see that what the Australian's were doing would be ILLEGAL in America. The DVDs we buy here (for home use) are not for commercial use and thus cost (an inflated, IHMO) $24.00. DVDs for commercial use (almost exactly the same content) cost rental outlets more. Anybody reading the article (and living Stateside) should have recognized this.

    --

    sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.