321 Studios Plays It Safe Against the DMCA

mblase writes: "CNet reports on a request by 321 Studios to have it legally declared that their DVD Copy Plus software doesn't violate the DCMA. DVD Copy Plus works on a Windows PC by copying DVD video to a recordable CD in VCD or similar format. If successful, this could be a major legal weapon against the DCMA in the future. 321 Studios' press release is here."

Comments

Finally!

[blankmange]

A company with a product to challenge the DMCA -- thank you, 321 Studios. And how long did we have to wait for some company with the guts to stand up and say "It should not be illegal for a consumer to make a copy of something they own." Will have to wait and see the outcome on this one.

Re:Finally!

[interstellar_donkey]

We decided to
proactively file this lawsuit not only to receive the courts' assurance that we are in compliance with the law but also to raise the broader question of how Americans' First Amendment rights can be protected in this digital age

Sounds silly, does'nt it? You have to sue in order to make sure you're not doing anything wrong. Note they are not seeking any damages.

Can they really be sued for being bullied?

You can sue for any reason you want. I can sue you because I don't like your name. That would probably be thrown out of court.

But what 321 is doing is very clever; if the court throws the case out, and the MPAA seeks damages under the DMCA, they are protected. "We already filed with the court, and the court decided that we were not doing anything wrong... at least to warrent the attention of the court."

Of course, it shows how screwy our legal system is. I can't call up the police and ask 'hey, I'm thinking of doing this.. is it legal?' They won't tell me. But if I do it, and it's illegal, they will arrest me. Laws are written in such a way that half the time people are breaking them not even knowing. It's nice to see a company exploit a loophole like this on the side of good.

Accept DMCA?

[debrain]

In a way, the success of this plea would endanger the fight against DMCA et al., by providing enough fair use to make the law as a whole acceptable to this company, other companies, and perhaps even many consumers. If this agreement is unilaterally struck down, then there is another entity out there who wills the end of the DMCA content control.

Indeed, winning this court case may be a tool to fight for fair use in a world of DMCA, but in the overall war we will sacrifice a valuable ally in the fight for a world without DMCA.

I would rather a post DMCA era, where freedom is presumed until proven a crime, rather than feel the need to prove my freedom for actions of thought and speech now considered criminal.

Re:Accept DMCA?

[Anonymous Coward]

Arrrgh! This technology / method does NOT have ANYTHING to do with fair use! Since when does creating a backup copy of licensed material qualify as Fair Use? It doesn't. It never has. It probably never will. Get your terms straight and maybe people will actually address the issues that you feel strongly about.

Re:Accept DMCA?

[fishebulb]

the problem is that it does interfere, the law makes little distinction between fair use and piracy.

On the RIAA website it states that they dont mind of if people make a copy of a CD for their car. And in fact they state it is fair use to do this. Ahh, but there is a problem now, with copy protected CD's, i cannot legally make a copy now, because i cannot break the copy protection. And more importantly it is illegal for someone to make a program that will allow this.

This law does nothing but maybe hike up the penalties for the real pirates (large scale manufactures) They are already breaking laws by making cds, then selling them.

Granted 321 studios may declare that this doesnt break the DMCA, but a tool to allow for even playing music cds on the computer could (the copy protected ones). This is only stating that their utility is legal, not utilities that are similar

Tough fight for 321Studio

[DragonPup]

Breaking DVD encryption is already a DMCA violation in the 2600 case if I recall. And if the product breaks the DVD encryption, it violates the DMCA by a set precadent. Keep in mind, I have no problem backing up DVDs for personal use that is allowed under Fair Use(and I hate warez kiddies), but 321 has it's work cut out for them :-(

-Henry

Re:"Is perfectly legal"

[the_2nd_coming]

I canmake a bit for bit copy of a DVD with out decrypting its copyprotection mechenism. then I can pop it into my DVD player and poof..I have a working DVD.

The Enemy of My Enemy is....

[GeekLife.com]

So, 321 Studios is against the DMCA. Hooray, right? Except, they're most likely the exact same companies filling up our inboxes with unsolicited useless spam every day, costing us bandwidth and time.

So, do we like them or hate them?

I guess I'll wait for the next slashback to tell me.

Re:The Enemy of My Enemy is....

[Wonko42]

What the hell? Do you have some basis for this claim, or are you just assuming that this company spams people? That's like saying, "I agree with Bob, but he most likely murders people in their sleep, so I hate him."

Unless you or someone you know has actually been spammed by this company, you're a fucking moron.

Re:VCD is not very good

[sh00z]

Which all makes me wonder why the studios haven't pulled out the ULTIMATE weapon against "DVD Back-Up" software: the lifetime replacement guarantee. If your DVD ever becomes unwatchable due to physical damage, simply bring it in and exchange it for a new one. Then there would be be no reason for people attempting to preserve their property to resort to potentially infringing methods, and Sony et al could sue firms like 321 into oblivion.