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Adam Bresson Demonstrates Fair Use at DefCon
nigelc writes: "Adam Bresson showed how to make copies of copyright-protected videos in a speech at DefCon. To quote the article, 'I hope he's got a lawyer and that they talked to somebody'" From the article, it sounds like Bresson simply used a video conversion box to defeat MacroVision -- something my notorious criminal father has been doing for years.
Never.
Certain manufacturers, and the MPAA that they suck up to do not want VCD/SVCD capability. Others, will continue making what customers want, and as the nonbleeding edge customers become educated they will want things like this more.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.
It was recently determined that Adam Bressen's lawyer is, in fact, timothy's father...
From the article:
Now Canopus has offices in the US. I figure that Bresson would probably not be prosecuted, basically cause there's no money involved. However, since Canopus has a branch in the US, I wouldn't be surprised if they were sued.
After all the best way to stop all of us "pirates" is to eliminate the tools we use.
Slashdot - Come for the creative thought, stay for the lesbians!
On some DVD players, you can disable Macrovision by means of uploading a new ROM into the player by burning it onto an ISO 9660 CD-R, or by hitting a secret key combination on the remote. It's mostly APEXes and Daewoos that let you do this; ironic that they are the cheapest yet most hackable DVD players. I have a cute little APEX I scored for $70 at Circuit City... that sucker plays DVDs, VCDs, SVCDs, CD-Rs, MP3s (!), and they kitchen sink. Most DVD players have a "Factory setting" menu that you can get to, but you need to know the secret code. Of course you'd never get goodies like this from the big boys (aka Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic).
How is making copies of copyrighted videos fair use?
slashdot!=valid HTML
It cleans up the signal and incidentally also removes the copy protection. Remember kids, the RIAA says that violating fair use is the fifth horseman of the apocalypse.
"Its' like stealing from the city dump. It may be illegal but who's going to stop you."
Nobody, unless you're allergic to dogs.
"Derp de derp."
The question is, wether or not this satisfies fair use. If you can make a low-quality analog copy of a digital work, is the law not still guaranteeing you the right to use the work fairly in it's original - digital - format?
Ñ'
So, the MPAA lied about all these things happening if all copys were outlawed and anyone making a copy were not immediately jailed?
Fight Spammers!
Being innovative and unique gets you thrown in jail.
Big business does not want independant thinkers, just a mass of sheeple, and when one of those sheeple jump to a higher valence, Big Business and Government is waiting to smack him down.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Any RF Modulator strips MacroVision.. Always has Always Will kinda deal... Same boxes he shamed everyone into buying were picked up at RadioShack and Wal-Mart for less than 35$
"Hollowpoints: When you care enough to send the very best."
Why spend $200 on a box to make a copy of a DVD, when my sub-$100 DVD player will do it for free? Plus, it has no region coding either. Go Apex!
...and we should make sure that all of the copy machines in the MPIAA officies are removed. They're obviously there for copying books anyway; if they want to do that they should have to do it by hand!
(and then we go after the pens)
We really do need a nuclear war to put all this in perspective.
Alas, Babylon.
Today, the father of Timothy of Slashdot fame was arrested when his son finally turned on him with a bold and public statement about his fathers criminal past and present.
:)
Supportors of the DMCA where quoted as saying "We are very happy a public supporter of the DMCA has finally come forward from the slashdot crew movement"
and they have had converters from every known standard to every other known standard and they're JUST NOW figuring this out?
That's why people can view (read: copy) DVD's with a TV that doesn't support the S-video standard although most if not all DVD players do. Translate S-video to stereo RCA+videousing a box that RadioShack sells( I can't remember the partno..), into a Line-In on a VCR and there ya go! to heck with CSS and etc..
Sheesh...
Partnership for an idiot free America!
...and gets tried and aquitted in open court.
We very much need a test case with a judgment in favor of consumer rights.
We need a legal case to which we can point, when we're arguing what our rights really are...
Personally, I've used one of those anti-macrovision boxes (I got mine for $50) and it works great. I didn't create the technology, and I've only used it in the privacy of my own home, excercising my 'fair use' rights as a consumer, so I should probably be safe.
The methodical corporate destruction of consumer rights must be stopped.
-- This sig for rent.
I know that a friend of mine recently purchased an Apex DVD player so he could player VCD's. However, in order to enable the VCD portion of the DVD player, he had to go to some obscure portion of the Apex web site and get some code that took him about 3 minutes to enter in. So, from the sound of things, some companies might be pressured to stop supporting VCD or maybe make it an under the table similar to Apex.
Not to troll or anything, but is this really a matter of fair use? I suppose it makes sense that he's demonstrating a system to back up a movie collection in the event of scratching, but dvd's are pretty resistant to superficial damage anyways, and can usually be fixed with a 2-dollar kit.
/. (for liability, warranties, etc.) and if your car should somehow melt or be snapped in half, you don't get a free replacement. Part of owning something is taking care of it.
Of course If you leave them in a car they can melt... but we've been likening software and media to cars for as long as I've read
It seems to me that while not the ONLY use, the far more common use of such a capability will be copying and distributing movies. Even without the distribution, and assuming that that FBI warning makes an exception for personal copying (Newsflash: It Doesn't) people will still be using this far away for illicit purposes. While it's fine to record a broadcast, not to mention already easy to do so, there really isn't any good reason why we need to be able to copy DVDs. Is there?
Common sense is what tells us that the world is flat
nigelc writes: "From the article, it sounds like Bresson simply used a video conversion box to defeat MacroVision -- something my notorious criminal father has been doing for years"
Jesus, nigelc, it was SO f#!@ing stupid!!
Now * I * hope that you or your father have got a lawyer and that they talked to somebody...
Which is another way that consumers are only being allowed to have technologies that corporations want them to. This is not a free country. More like a free to be controlled country.
___ Shout Central - Crushes your nuts!
I was at Best Buy a few days ago and found a device into which you plug any two audio/visual devices, and which stated that it would "even out erratic signal levels, enabling the VCR to get a clean image again."
It is a MacroVision-defeating hardware device, prepackaged, for $50 or so.
I was actually a bit astounded that someone hadn't come and stomped on the balls of this company.
For my money, though, it's VideoLan Client or nothing.
fifth sigma, inc.
Has there ever been an industry which has survived solely on the basis of legislation?
The recording and software industries suddenly find themselves without the natural protections of severely limited bandwidth or formats which discourage copying. As such, their business models (which have only really existed for the last few decades) seem dangerously out of date, especially on the music side. Video games and movies are still somewhat protected by large size, but with the proliferation of available bandwidth this seems only like a matter-of-time issue (although non-console video games and other computer software have some other outlets, the effectiveness of those recourses is also open to question).
So, it appears that their only tool to perpetuate their current business model will be legislation like the DMCA. Can anyone think of an industry where this survival-by-lawyers tactic has worked for more than a few years? Or are they destined to slide out of business as they know it?
Of course, we live in a historically litagous time where the law and lawyers have more power than ever, so maybe part prescindent isn't relevant. It seems entirely possible to me that they could stave off any sort of mass-advancement just be completely crushing those who oppose them (am I going to risk any real threat of a massive fine just to copy a few CD tracks?).
If the RIAA had owned the buggy industry in 1900, I think we'd all still be whipping our horses to get to work in the morning.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
for a minute there I felt like i was in cyberspace... weird...
/me shudders
___ Shout Central - Crushes your nuts!
when everybody get a dvd burner and the price of cheap dvd-r drop, (s)vcd will die... i wish i had one!!
It was this kids way of getting attention for his new start-up. He didn't do anything but demonstrate someone else's technology. I think the article sort of danced around the idea that he's encouraging copying of games, and the rental of those copies. He's only taking a commision on setting-up the rental of games owned by others, after all; what would he care if a few of those games were actually copies.
put the what in the where?
god that is so stupid. With the lack of any TRUE infringments on freedom (see Revolutionary War) todays generation has nothing better to do than whine about companies not including vcd support as evidence that the US is not free. WHAT BULL.
Don't buy their DVD player, how about that? no one's making you. You can buy one that supports playing vcd, they exist! Hell, you could even start your own company to supply such a product, because demand is clearly high, you could become rich by doing this too! Rich and in the moral highground, way to go !! Or you could start a petition, again, because vcd is so overwhelmingly popular. Or you could do the lazy crap thing to do--whine about it on slashdot.
What happened there?
fifth sigma, inc.
Since the copyright laws specify you're paying for the CONTENT not the MEDIUM it is stored on, it makes perfect sense to ensure the content you've paid for will remain in your posession even if the storage medium fails for some reason.
You get another bag at the grocery store if the first bag rips on the way out, right? Or would you leave the groceries on the sidewalk? Of course not. You've already paid for them.
Now imagine if the store told you you'd have to pay for the groceries again in order to get a new bag.
Same thing as when a record store asks you to pay full price for a replacement cd.
-- This sig for rent.
No, but if you get a scratch on your car, you can get it fixed without buying a whole new car.
Of course, the analogy is ridiculously flawed -- you can't easily compare 1s and 0s to large, resource and labor intensive objects like cars.
However, pretend the auto industry made money by designing cars and then licensing the right to build a single car based on that design (selling, of course, to people who have complete assembly lines in their sheds). People would use their own equipment to create the car based on the data provided.
If I wreck my car, shouldn't I be able to go build another? I bought a license for one Ford Focus, so as long as I'm not cranking out Foci for my whole family, I'm not taking any money out of the hands of Ford or it's designers. All I'm doing is reusing the data to create another instance of the product I've already licensed for my personal use.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
in fact, it is the IGNORancE of HIV that has caused it to spread. Frighteningly, people on the African continent are now consuming 80,000 tons of bushmeat (read MONKEYS) per year. HIV (2 strains) came from SIV (S= Simean) of which there are at least 30 known strains. It is only a matter of time before it gets worse.
Anything you say will be held against you.
Actually, it's instructive to compare the tax rates that angered the colonists with our tremendously higher taxes today. And look at the War on (some) Drugs and the Eternal War on Terror for many examples of infringements on freedom.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
There is no law on the US books that outlaws defeating Macrovision.
Macrovision is in the analog domain, and the much touted copyright "protection" law is only in the digital domain, hence the name:
Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
So he broke no law. So who cares?
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I would think a tape with macrovision means the manufacturer doesn't want you to copy their tape.
You want to copy it for backup purposes.
I think I see 3 problems here...
I think before any DMCA type stuff is added to any kind of media, the media producer needs to be held accountable for replacement. I've never seen this happen however as most of them simply tell you "Return this to your place of purchase"
Problem is, the place of purchase has no easy way of RMA'ing defective merchandise.
Wait a minute!
*light bulb*
I think I see an easy solution to all this. When you purchase something you should be able to anonymously register your product online (HINT HINT!) When it goes bad, you go online, login, report it bad and get a POPRMA# (place of purchase return merchandise authorization #)You take your bad merchandise back to the store with your POPRMA and the store validates the POPRMA and destroys the media.
Now that the media producer has a valid POPRMA, they just mail you a new tape.
Unfortunately, reality is record companies (major labels) are all bloodsucking thirsty vultures that would eat your grandparents. They would soon as rather write off the sale with no recourse than be held accountable for it.
Despite all the good the internet can do, greed, jealosy, and evil are still a part of the human collective. Despite how easy of an idea this may be to implement, these negative instincts are rooted in the core of many peoples brain. You get a lot of money, you want a lot more. Bob has big nose, you want one bigger.
So until mother terasa is running the Media moguls, we're all fucked.
I live in a mansion...a huge goddamned house. I watch my DVDs in three seperate rooms (a game-room on the first floor, a living room on the second, and in the cottage, which is seperate from the house).
I have a favorite movie and watch it religiously. I have three options to augment the convenience of this:
1. Buy three copies...but this would make me not as rich.
2. Carry the DVD around with me from room to room...but this is tacky and, since I'm rich, I don't want to be any more tacky then I have to.
3. Make two extra copies of the DVD so I can watch it in any room.
Personal use. Personal reasons. It might be a stretch, but if we can think of a case in which it seems plausible that someone could benefit from having multiple copies of one DVD (if only for convenience's sake), then don't we have to concede that there ARE (potential) legitimate reasons for coping a DVD?
You obviously DON'T have a 2 year old son that likes to "HACK" his way into the DVD cabinet....
Further, you purchased a movie. The DVD/VCR tape is simply the medium upon which the movie is stored. A vehicle is a very poor analogy.
I would personally LOVE to be able to copy my DVD's and keep ONLY the copies accessible. The original Master copies would only come out when needed to re-copy a destroyed backup/use copy.
The point is not whether YOU have a need/want to copy your DVD's... The point is that we the people (in the U.S. at least), are losing our established rights to corporate greed steering a corrupt government, unchallenged by an apathetic populace.
So I have a TV with a DVD player in my living room, and a TV with a VCR in my bedroom. If I buy a movie on DVD then do I not have the right to watch that movie anywhere?
There's a very good reason why we need to be able to copy DVDs. I don't want to move my DVD player to my bedroom to watch a movie, and I don't want to buy another one, so I should have the right to copy the movie I legally own onto VHS tape so I can watch it my bedroom.
Actually, it's instructive to compare the tax rates that angered the colonists with our tremendously higher taxes today.
I hate taxes ok, but that's not the issue--the issue is taxation without representation. We are represented, feel free to vote for a candidate who DOESN'T want to raise taxes.
And look at the War on (some) Drugs and the Eternal War on Terror for many examples of infringements on freedom.
If you break the law, you're going to get in trouble, I have no problem with this.
Have you ever rented a DVD that's more than a month or so old? It's not pretty.
Part of taking care of data is backing it up. Nobody's asking for each DVD to come with 5 free "backup" copies of the disc here, just to keep the right to back up data.
What does the FBI warning have to do with my legal rights? What does someone else's violation of the law have to do with my legal rights?
The solution to rampant lawlessness is to capture and punish the lawbreakers, not to extend the law to make everything illegal. Even John Ashcroft can't arrest everybody. Especially if they're breaking the law by exercising their legal rights. This is going to take a long time, but the courts are going to throw out a lot these laws. Until then, I guess a lot of us will just have to be "criminals."
I spent a year in Iraq looking for WMD and all I found was this lousy sig.
Most video professionals, including TV stations have off the shelf video processing gear to clean up signals. Most of the pre-digital and pre-Hi8 consumer video cameras are crap. A cheap re-syncronizer is usually the first step in cleaning up the signal for viewer submitted video of accidents, disasters, stupidity, etc.
But see this is a large part of my point. If all you are paying for is the content, then you are leasing. Because unless you are buying the rights entirely, you don't own anything. The only person who can 'own' information is the copy right holder. In the car-home-production example, it's still owned by ford, and thus they still have the right to control it and it's uses, whether they feel like sharing or not. I've tried to bring up this point before to lots of different people on all sides of the issue. Before anything can be acomplished, we have to decide whether we want to own a specific object, or whether we are simply paying for the right to listen for a while, like when you rent a movie. It may very well suck, but we cannot have the best of both worlds, and neither can the media companies.
As for the broken paper bag analogy, that's really not applicable. Of course you'll get a new bag from the grocery store, but if you bought stuff in jars and it broke after you left the store, then by 'act of god' or whatever, some of your property was destroyed, and the store is Not liable for a replacement.
If we can't reasonably accept the downside to way of looking at things, then nothing will ever get accomplished. We must be rational and find the scheme in which everyone is at least satisfied, because there is no way that all parties can get everything that they want. Hence the word "Compromise".
PS. Whatever you thought you paid for, whatever you want to pay for, whatever you think you should have to pay for, does not make that what you actually paid for.
Common sense is what tells us that the world is flat
Can't you just use a long scart lead? Never done it myself but I've been told (several times) that if you connect two VCRs using a 10m+ scart lead then the video/audio signal is strong enough to get through but the macrovision part gets lost on the way.
God bless my 1st generation sony dvd player that plays VCDS.
Regardless of whether the law is just? Besides, you don't have to break any laws to suffer. 80% of citizens whose property is confiscated via asset forfeiture are never even charged with crimes.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Don't sue me but.... I bought the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge a few months back and well, I haven't had a single problem with Macrovision. I actually bought it to put some old home movies onto my flat-panel iMac. Then I decided to put some of my out of print VHS movies onto DVD. I don't know if they have macrovision or not but they worked fine. Then I remembered about Macrovision and attempted to copy the DVD "Go" to VHS from DVD player to VCR. That didn't work due to Macrovision but when I used the DV Bridge as a pass-through it worked just fine.
This is a rather nice side effect so now if I ever get motivated I can make some music videos or something for fun.
15-1244
Looking at the box I use this to make my PS2 and my dvd player work on my archaic TV (and a number of other boxes too)
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
Besides that, there is no good way to have complete and failproof protection (short of having EVERYTHING be controlled by one group). For non-interactive content, video and sound is eventually going to be displayed/played by something. Most of the time, you can intercept that signal with a non-copy protectioned device. If not, then you sacrifice a little quality and capture the display/sound through other means.
As for interactive content, short of having the whole computer controlled by a dictidorian system, you can't really stop someone from editing assembly.
What can be done? Well, if the public is willing to give up their freedoms and have one group control their entire AV systems, and have their computer completely controlled by one group as well (sound familiar? think M$), then yes it can be done. However, this is not the American way. The RIAA/MPAA would have us give up our right to breathe if they thought they could make more money. We must resist, and continue to fight for our rights!
Great thought, but you don't own your cd's according to the RIAA. You are merely renting the content.
Murphy was an optimist.
I'll be by tonight to pickup your/my computer.
Defeting macrovision is nothing new, but the more the relitive ease of doing so is brought out into the open, perhaps the less these 'anti-copying' schemes will appear.
I had my worst experience with macrovision with an old TV with a VCR built in. The VCR broke, and I bought a new stand alone unit thinking I'd play it through the TV. But, it went through the TVs circuits and of course, the picture was screwed up.
I ended up buying a new TV. Now why should I be punished by this system for watching tapes that I OWN, that I'm not copying, and that I'm doing nothing illegal with?
I hope these people stop treating consumers like criminals.
The Internet is generally stupid
Been Caught Stealing really is the theme song of the /. crowd:
Well, it's just a simple fact
When I want something
And don't want to pay for it
I walk right through the door
Walk right through the door
Hey all right! If I get by, it's mine
Mine all mine!
IMHO, it's just as valuable if he's found guilty. Remember, there are two ways to change a law. One is through getting it circumscribed or thrown out in court. The other is getting it repealed through public outrage.
I don't want to wish the guy into jail, but perhaps widespread public outrage would be better than mere circumscription of the DMCA. With an acquittal no doubt fair use would be improved a little, but only to the extent of defeating Macrovision for your own non-infringing purposes in your own home. Region coding and Track-0 on DVDs would remain untouched. Security disclosure would remain a crime.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
When you buy a CD/DVD then you are buying the 'right' to listen/view the material within, with the understanding that you do not own that material, only the right to experience it. That is why most people feel that if the container of said media becomes damaged for any reason, it should be replaced at no fee to the consumer.
Now, let's look at the rest of your statement:
DVD's have a limited shelf life, just as any other media. Being able to make an archival copy of my DVD's ensures that I can enjoy them for as long as I own them.DVD's are susceptible to damage. So again, haveing a copy ensures that I can easily replace a damaged disk at no additional cost to myself.
DVD's are not the final storage media that will be presented to consumers. Why should I have to buy a huge movie library over and over again simply because the industry changes the format that they will support?
Then there's the idea of cultural archival. Consider that many classic movies have been altered in various ways by the studios. Guns removed from ET, editing changes made to Star Wars, etc. In 30 years, if you want to get a copy of the original version of these movies, you won't be able to purchase them from the studios.
So yes, the capability to copy a DVD is not only necessary, but vital. Casual consumer piracy is not the threat that industry pundits would have us believe it to be, nor should it be confused with concerted piracy.
Luckily, it doesn't. Be innovative and unique in the 1980s. Make an online service (what, are you crazy?!), license an OS, don't sell it, think of a graphical way to use computers. Make a web browser. Big Business doesn't expect indepenant thinkers. They just sort of sneek up on them and become their own big businesses.
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
You make a very good point, but the revolutionary war is just a bad example. (see Rich White Men Tired of Paying Taxes in Essentially Free Society: or How Economics, not Ideology, Caused the Revolutionary War)
A better example is say, Nazi germany. The Soviet Union. Pol Pot's Cambodia. Myanmar and half of Africa today. That is your rights being infringed, not high taxes on luxury goods, like tea.
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
Ive used the device for the past fews years to defeat Macrovision, and for legitimate purposes. The tool itself is not illegal. Since the TV in my room doesnt have composite or component inputs on it, I have to run it through my VCR. When I first got my DVD player, I noticed my video would fritz out, so I put a stabalizer in line with it to eliminate the problem. Now I can watch DVD's no problem, and what do you know, its not being used illegally. I doubt the company could be sued, since this kind of technology has legitimate purposes, such as Time Base Correctors in video decks and editing stations. So I doubt the manufacturers of the tools would be sued... but in this day and age of MPAA payed lawyers, I wouldnt doubt it, but theyd be shooting themselves in the foot when their editing decks no longer have SMTPE sync capabilities.
Since the copyright laws specify you're paying for the CONTENT not the MEDIUM it is stored on
Where? I must have missed that part of title 17.
I do think that is the intent, but I don't see it *specified* in the law as such.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
If you think DMCA is bad, you probably want to thank yourself that you don't live in Japan, where not only you can't rent console games, you are NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO SELL GAMES YOU OWN.
But, you only get the free bag if it breaks on the grocery store's property, you don't get one if the bag breaks in your driveway. The same reasoning applies to CDs, if you somehow lose your CD in the Best Buy parking lot, then they will probably give you a new one, but if you lose it at your house, then toughluck.
Yeah, you're right, it was just the first thing off the top of my head. Thanks for the superior examples.
Actually, it's instructive to compare the tax rates that angered the colonists with our tremendously higher taxes today.
The taxes that angered the colonists were being paid to a nation several thousand miles away, to a government that didn't give them a say in how they were being ruled. Yeah, the taxes we pay today make those pale by comparison, but at least (in theory) it's for a government that (in theory) represents the goverend.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Both TVs in my houses are aging units that only take input from an AV cable. I need to either use an old VCR that can withstand that cheap protection crap, or what I'm using now, a 5-switch RF modulator/SVideo/RCA plug box.
Fsck that protection crap. If I didn't think it was futile, I'd never by DVDs out of protest....
Regardless of whether the law is just? Besides, you don't have to break any laws to suffer. 80% of citizens whose property is confiscated via asset forfeiture are never even charged with crimes.
What unjust laws are you referring to (note: I'm not denying that there are unjust laws, I just am unsure which you are referring to). I have no problems with drugs being illegal or terrorism being illegal.
as for your 80% stat--do you have any way of backing that up? I'd be really interested to know if that is true.
*NT* means no text.
Ugh.
Why do I even bother with slashdot anymore, mistakes like that are just too hard to correct.
First let me thank you for calling me "moroneas," I really appreciate your dedication to an actual adult discussion. Secondly, you now admit that it's only highend dvd players that don't support vcd (I'm not even sure this is true)? So as evidence that America isn't free you're using the fact that you can't buy a highend combination dvd/vcd player. give me a break...
If the license were to build one car, no -- you've already built that one car. It wouldn't matter whether you wrecked it, sold it, gave it away, ate it, or transmuted it all to gold; none of those would magically change the world "one" into "as many as you like".
Now, it's a completely separate issue as to whether or not licenses for artistic content are valid -- such as whether or not a strict shrink-wrapped "Thou shalt not duplicate or play on an unlicensed player" EULA on a videotape would be permissible.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Incidentally....
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.php
It seems that almost all the players there support VCD...what's the problem?
Most (probably all) of the recently released APEX DVD players, and certainly all of the cheap ones are advertised to play VCDs (on both cdr and cdrw) right out of the box.
Now some of them do need to be 'upgraded' to defeat macrovision and region coding, but those things are associated with playing DVDs and not VCDs.
are belong to us
Bresson used a device sold online for about $200 by United Kingdom-based Canopus.
These are pretty cheap by comparison! Seriously though, are RF modulators an anti-DMCA device now? You can copy copy-protected VHS tapes with them. I'm sure (i hope) that Adam demonstrated a more impressive technology than this, but the article was short on details and so is Canopus' website. Maybe they are charging top dollar for RatShack parts!
Basically no macrovision defeaters are openly sold, but not because it would violate copyright law. When they first developed the macrovision scheme, the makers worked out every way to defeat it that they could come up with and patented them all. So a macrovision defeating device does not break copyright laws. It breaks patents held by the makers of macrovision.
Love,
Jay and Silent Bob
Isn't that exactly what the Founding Fathers
did, break the law?
Considered harmful.
Just because you "have no problem" with something doesn't mean that something is not contrary to the Constitution and rights acknowledged in it.
Considered harmful.
If you signed a lease for your Britney Spears CD then I've got a bridge in New York that I'd like to lease to you.
:)
In the UK DVDs are often advertised with the slogan "yours to own". Maybe they don't do that in the US or maybe they don't have laws about truth in advertising
I had issues with this when playing DVD's out through the PC, being that that copy-protection built into the VCR messes up the picture, etc. The solution: Borrowed one of my parents' old BETA machines. Made before Macrovision was used, it works just fine for watching my DVD's now
IANAL,. but I read judicial opinions ;)
The 2600 case (don't remember the full case name-- who was the plaintiff?) hinged to a very large extent on the limits of free speach, which is absolute insofar as that speach is of political, scientific, or artistic value, but does not exnent necessarily to practical components of a speach. In other words, if I say that the current president of the US is a terrorist and a broke into 1000 classified computers in Australia, this is in theory protected speach (has political value). But if I say "here is how you too can circumvent copy protection," the how-to aspects may not be protected.
That being said, wearing a T-Shirt with the de-css source code would probably be protected as a political statement, IMHO.
What I am saying is that if they decided to prosecute the fellow, they would not have to rely on copyright infringement to do so. Fair use in this case is a non-issue.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
there is nothing like a big jelly finger print on your childs favorite rugrat video to really understand why we need back-ups!
Or walking into the room to see all there DVDs scatterd all over while they dance on them... sigh,
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
So, by your logic it's ok for me to take any research papers you might create and use them as my own? I mean, I'm not hurting anyone and it's just intellectual property...
he's not copying someone's MP3s and trying to pass them off as his own recordings. or are you suggesting he is opposed to having people download copies of his research papers and read them?
MORTAR COMBAT!
Why I want VCD. To place TV shows on. TV is low quality so a VCD won't be a disappointment.
What? You can go get free bags as often as you want. Of course, some stores may charge a nominal fee for new bags. You can also buy a heavy duty reusable bag if you wish.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
The majority (75% I guess) of new VCRs sold in the UK can (supposedly) play back NTSC videos- even the 65.00UKP bottom-of-the-range models.
Your mileage may vary though- I've never used this feature in my VCR. Also, it requires a suitable TV (I guess that means it must handle 60Hz-400 line modified-PAL; my 10 year old Sony portable can do that...)
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I AM OFFICIALLY *ENDING* This thread, and all it's children. .......... nazis
There. You can say no more.
What? Me? Worry?
Over here almost all DVD players can bypass region encoding, and a many can bypass macrovision.
There are dozens of websites with details of how to disable region codes. Most just need a particular sequence of keypresses on the remote. You would have to try very hard to buy a player that couldn't be made multi-region.
We are region-2, but I would say that 50% to 75% of the DVD's in most peoples collections here are region-1. Even British-made films are released as region-1 only because region-2 is too small a market to make it worthwhile.
Region-2 is shrivelling to nothing, and I'd be suprised if the other regions were different.
I have a problem with laws against the private use of relatively harmless substances such as marijuana, especially when enforcement of such laws reduces civil liberties and privacy for all citizens. (No, I don't use pot myself.) And I hope you can agree that the DMCA and Disney Copyright Extension Act are blatant abuses of government power.
as for your 80% stat--do you have any way of backing that up?
A quick google search came up with this and this.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Do you have any problem with cheesburgers being illegal too? How about with Slashdot?
Just because you "have no problem" with something doesn't mean that something is not contrary to the Constitution and rights acknowledged in it.
You don't get my point--the post was about "unjust" laws, and I was saying that I find none of the mentioned laws unjust in the slightest--or unconstitutional.
I have a problem with laws against the private use of relatively harmless substances such as marijuana, especially when enforcement of such laws reduces civil liberties and privacy for all citizens. (No, I don't use pot myself.) And I hope you can agree that the DMCA and Disney Copyright Extension Act are blatant abuses of government power.
Pots just not a big deal to me. I've never seen it do good, and have seen many friends crash when getting into smoking and all, so I say good that it's illegal. As for DMCA + et al, I think they go too far, and yet, I think the artists and others have a right to protect their work from being stolen / whatever you want to call it on napster like systems, which is what a DMCA type law should handle.
Thanks for the links.
I like to think that there's a difference between revolution for representative governance and smoking up behind the schoolyard.
or his estate for the usage of e=mc ^ 2?
Knowledge is something that the more you share it, the more valuable it becomes. Now I'm the first to admit that movies and music don't exactly qualify for knowledge all the time. However, you are not depriving anyone of anything real by copying a movie. Only potential sales are reduced, which is real enough in our economy today.
All the things that we copy, movies, music, video games. They all were made with one thing in mind, to make money by selling a license to use them. But is it right to let these people earn money as long as they can off of one invention?
"If you break the law, you're going to get in trouble, I have no problem with this."
Yeah...they should've thrown the book at Rosa Parks breakin' the law like that.
Who did she think she was?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
And thousands of people die every year from alcohol, but history has taught us that trying to ban it created more problems than it solved.
I think the artists and others have a right to protect their work from being stolen / whatever you want to call it on napster like systems, which is what a DMCA type law should handle.
Except that piracy was already illegal before the DMCA. The DMCA isn't about preventing piracy, it's about controlling use. It allows publishers to eliminate fair use by slapping any technological access controls on their products, which you are then forbidden to circumvent even if your intent is not to violate copyright.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
LOL there was a huge amount of voter say in the last presidential election. 119,000 disqualified voters, an election decided by the courts ? I'd say we are approaching the point of taxation without 'adequate' representation.
USA, government by the hypocrites, for the idiots.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
Is his video of his speech available on the Defcon site? It seems all the media links there are bad. . .
The shopping bag analogy is a good one -- except for one thing:
Under copyright law, the IP owner is granting you a license. The terms of that license are entirely up to the IP owner to dictate.
You, of course, always have the option of saying "no thanks" and walking away -- but if you buy the product then you're bound by the license that comes with it.
This means that if the license is tied to the media then loss or damage to the media represents loss or damage to the goods and you're not entitled to any replacement (unless the loss or damage was due to a manufacturing defect).
However, just because they can dictate such stupid terms is no reason why any IP owner should do so.
If the RIAA just used some commonsense, they'd realise that by licensing the content and not the media itself they'd soothe a lot of ruffled brows and regain some moral high-ground.
Imagine how much positive PR they'd get if they announced that any original disk that was damaged would be replaced for the price of the media plus handling ($1-$2). This move would also immediately negate the common justification that copying is necessary to produce "backup" copies of valuable CDs wouldn't it?
No longer would the RIAA have to accept that copying a commercial music recording is justifiable on the grounds that it's simply to protect the original investment.
Of course the lard-asses at the RIAA are trying to protect their goose from being stolen by holding its neck as tight as they can - and in the process they're killing it.
If they had half a brain they'd regain some of the moral high-ground by adopting a licensing system similar to that used by many software developers which allows for media-replacement and makes it clear that you're buying a single-user right to use the content.
http://www.iyfproductions.com
handjobs!!!
There seems to be a general gripe about tax support for Amtrak, but nobody complains about the amount of tax support going for roads and airport infrastructure. The playing field is nowhere near level.
For another one, in spite of the fact that many semi trucks say things like, "This truck pays $xxxx a year in taxes," they pay NOTHING compared to the amount of damage they do to the roads. Trucking is terribly subsidized by cars.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
O sure it is, in the first case, there
is a war and people get killed; in the
second, well?
Considered harmful.
You have got to be kidding "what unjust laws." All laws are unjust to someone. Every law takes away a freedom.
... Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed...
That "skip" that you have during movies (should only be once per side) is probably a layer switch. DVDs can be made dual-layer to hold twice the data, and cheaper DVD players (like mine) don't buffer enough data into memory to play through the layer switch without freezing for a moment. I believe that the frequency of light that is shot at the disc is changed for the second pass. In any event, all the (two-dimensional) physical locations on the disk have a capability of holding two layers per side, so a double-sided double-layer DVD would have four times the capacity of a single layer, single sided DVD. I was pretty impressed when I first read about it.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. --H.L. Mencken
In my opinion, some companies do have a tendency to rip off their customers. Not that it makes it right to steal from them. I do "steal" programs. I do "steal" music. I do "steal" anime! Now that I got that out of my system I will goon making my points.
Most IRC piracy distributors are damn hard to track. They will not be able to stop it easily. To stop the P2P you must stop the source on the IRC chartrooms, which is not likely.
To make people less willing to steal they got to play lets make a deal with the smarter of us that know we would be getting ripped off. Charging $1000+ for a peace of software is unreasonable. Some peoples computers alone cost that much! I go see movies. The Anime I watch would cost me $80 per copy of 3 episodes. That is just ridiculous. And under no circumstance I would pay $500 just to have the right to control XP! The simple fact that I can't get a pre-made comp with my choice of operating system is pathetic. It's hard enough to get a decent AMD run computer. The licensing has gotten out of hand. People are fed up and turn to shadier sources. These companies need to realize they serve us, not their banking account. By serving us they get more money. Then they will get my money when they start pricing thing reassemble. You think that without all the pay for packaging and shipping the digital way would be more popular... but NO, there is an analog gap so we can't use it! It's too easy to copy! Well get used to it. That's what digital is. If you can't trust people who can you trust. Trust you loyal costumers. To earn the trust of loyal costumers you must be reasonable and fit their needs... NOT YOURS. This is the principle of marketing. This is the purpose of capitalism. It was never to get rich. It was to promote Science and Art. All this new capitalism is just hindering it. But this capitals is formed of greed. Every one wants to get rich quick and don't give a **** about their costumers. This is showing now with all the big companies collapsing. They were serving only themselves. But this is not why I steal. I'm a cheap bastard. But I understand how things SHOULD work. I pay for things. I bought My War craft 3. I bought Half-life. I bought my Jedi Knight II. I bought Quake II after I got a pirated copy and thought they disserved the $30. What I did not buy is my apps. Most of my software on this computer is a copy off of the other. I'm not paying for something unless I really need and want too. I do buy CD's. I also steal all the songs I like off the CD's. I also will not pay for 1 song off a $15 cd. Sell singles if you got too. But if you going to make it so it's available online.. MAKE IT SO I CAN COPY IT AND PLAY AS I DAMN WELL WANT! THIS is what consumers want. They want to be able to make their own mix. Also I have found so many new artists that I never even heard of which I love so very much on P2P and went out to buy their CD's, only to find that was the only good song they made. =( Figures. Anyhow. Back on subject. If you think P2p is any different than taking a tape and copying it back like they did it in the 70's your wrong. Also, why the hell don't they sell MP3 CD's. What would it be too expensive? You can fit 600x the songs on their! I would pay for it if it was a collection I liked! They could charge me $60 for 100 songs. I would not care. I would give them their money due for it. The companies are greedy. Exactly how much money does the Artist get? A smidgen of it. They themselves are being used! This is why the companies are afraid of Digital transfer... they can be skiped! But where would the bands record and modify the sound without the company? Why on thier computer! What a scary thought!
Live long free midis!
==========
Sincerely,
Locke
I seemed to have ranted on that message.
==========
Sincerely,
Locke
Last year cinemagoers increased by a big percentage.
CD sales sufered, but of course the record companies can't relate that to a downtunr in the economy and even perhaps a change of mood after 9/11. Of course the easy target is to blame it all in an unidentifiable, unassilable enemy: the pirate. The next thing is that they will send people for copying CDs or DVDs to Guantanamo...
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
I did qualify all my statements with "in theory" :-)
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
119,000 disqualified voters? And what's so unusual about that? I remember reading that there was nothing unusual about the number of spoiled ballots in 2000 as compared to previous Presidential ellections. According to this link, there were 101,452,285 ballots cast in the 2000 election. Your 119,000 is 0.1173% of that total, a small percentage.
Is it anyones' fault but their own for casting spoiled ballots? Answer: no. Ballots are published WEEKS in advance. Voter guides are myriad; pick one that matches your political beliefs if you want. Conscientious voters should have a pre-marked ballot to carry to the poll with them. Standing in the booth is the wrong time to be reading a ballot for the first time.
As far as taxes go, I dream of the day we return to constitutionally correct government, shedding the largess that has been added since the New Deal (I consider myself a strict constructionist). Eliminating the unconstitutional programs would free up trillions of dollars-- money that would stay right in your pocket.
"Two wrongs don't make a right."
In fact, by infringing, you give them the same justification back to continue sleazy practices.
"A spokeswoman for the Motion Picture Association of America said no one was available to comment."
Translation: "no comment."
SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
It is well known you can copy your dvd to vcd disks and play them.
Want to know how to do this?
here it is described.
Since the mpeg2 format needs to be licenced ther are no 100% free tools to do this, and it takes a bit of processing power on your pc. But is is doalble. The tools remove Macrovision and i never a "region" thingy in this software.
Expect VHS quality, no more.
that's a case of knowing the local market.. in europe, everyone knows about region-encoding. so the first question is: is it region-free? if not.. is there a free way to get rid of the region (code on the remote.. stuff like that), and if not... how much to get it chipped to make it region-free? //rdj
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587