EA, Atari Sue Over Videogame Copying Software

Thanks to the Monterey Herald/AP for its news story regarding EA, Atari, and VU Games' lawsuit against the makers of the Games X Copy backup software. The article explains: "The federal lawsuit [PDF version], filed Tuesday in New York, alleges that Games X Copy software by 321 Studios Inc. of suburban St. Louis violates copyright laws by illegally cracking copy-protection systems used by [PC] game makers." Doug Lowenstein of the ESA trade body, also backing the lawsuits, explains: "I wouldn't get into speculating on dollar losses here. What's at stake here is a rather important legal principle - that products with no purpose other than to circumvent copyright protection are illegal under the DMCA." The piece also notes that "Federal judges in New York and California have barred 321 from marketing... [similar] DVD-cloning software - a victory for movie studios, which contended that such products violate the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

Comments

Re:Have it resurfaced

[king-manic]

Lunar 2 was better on the Sega CD anyway. The animation was more charming.

It's the muddy sega colors right? They made it every so charming.

Re:Good on the DMCA

[black mariah]

and when my 4 year old nephew grabs a disc off my computer when I'm not looking and trashes it I can go ahead and do what exactly?

Punch the little bastard in the face, then put your damn CDs up next time.

What I don't get

[BayBlade]

Is why they don't just ship you an original disk labelled "backup" when you buy the damned thing. Its would inflate the price of it by what? $2? Probably less. Manufacturing is hardly the pricepoint for these things, and they have a pretty good way of pointing out your fair use has been exhausted when you decide to make a copy.