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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.
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).
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 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 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.
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.
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.
Not so. Macrovision works by pulsating the intensity of the video sync signal. This fluctuation in intensity fools the AGC circuit in the recieving deck causing the picture colors to become distorted, and brighter and dimmer. TVs do not contain this AGC circuit, and therefore, are unaffected by macrovision. A more detailed explanation can be found here: http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/LINK/F_MacroVision 1.html#MACROVISION_016
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....