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Lawsuits Force 321 Studios Out Of Business
elegie writes "321 Studios has gone out of business. Earlier, they came under fire for producing DVD disc-copying software. Specifically, it was argued by movie studios that the DVD-X Copy software and the DVD Copy Plus software violated the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) anticircumvention rules. 321 Studios argued that copying a DVD disc for personal use counted as "fair use" in terms of copyright law. The EFF has said that the closing was not surprising because of all the legal injunctions against 321 Studios."
How about opening the source for their software?
I can't beleive they went out of business. It seemed like they were doing pretty well. =(
There's an important lesson to be learnt here.
Wasn't the point of the legal system once to protect the weak from the poor. Somewhere along the line something happened to that ideal.
www.fishkeeping.co.uk
The REAL reason they went out of business is that everyone was burning and distributing illegal copies of their software.
[/joke]
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Noone should be using DVD-X copy anyways, dvdshrink is where it is at. Better quality and better price(free).
Any chance they're going to release the code to their products? Would that increase their legal liability at this point?
Moderation: Put your hand inside the puppet head!
... but you can't fight people with deeper pockets as has been shown over and over again
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
This comes hot off the heels of a purchase of a smal laptop with no internal DVD. Guess it's back to Kazaa.
"Derp de derp."
when all these companys take rights away from legitimate users like that...if people really wanna break the law they will but what if someone needs to do something legitimate with it...what are they supposed to do...this company is just one exaple of of this whole bullshit with copying stuff...no protection scheme has stoped pirate from copying stuff iligally...
The MPAA then will try shutting down the web sites distributing it, like when they went after 2600 and Jon.
:)
Of course, they can't get everyone.
Besides, I suspect that since it is a Winoze application, they didn't write it to be ported. But, it can provide a good start.
Fight Spammers!
Now I know grammar isn't a strong point on /. but if the article poster had meant 'many studios' he would have posted '321 studios have gone out of business' rather than the 'has gone ...'
thankyou.
you're winner!!
Yaknow, it really sucks that the movie industry has become what is has, or heck, that the media industry has, but there are laws and there are consequenses for breaking them.
If it were up to me i'd be all about open media, and i'm sure most of the people on here would be too, but infortunatley the people concerned only with making money do not hold to the same ideals that we do.
I guess it comes down to the same deal as the RIAA. I hate their guts, but when you consider what they're doing in suing a ton of people, they ARE right, legally speaking. People are stealing from their income, so they "legally" have the right to sue them.
The only problem is business ethics, but thats another story altogether.
Now how else will I back up my DVD movies that I plan to eventually buy?
People need to confront the DMCA, really see it for what it is. Right now, the law says "thou shalt only play the movies in the way Hollywood prescribes", but it hasn't really internalized because so many people can use unlicensed software to do things like copy DVDs, play them without commercials, etc. I think the FBI needs to really crack down on anyone who violates the DMCA, by imprisoning everyone who copies a DVD for home use, especially rich and politically connected people. We could call it the "War on Pirates", and appoint a "Piracy czar", or something similarly crazy. The public needs to be rendered totally unable to copy or play DVDs in a way of their choosing, as the law prescribes, before they will wake up and actually understand what the law prescribes. Right now there's no reason to fight the DMCA because no one knows what it really means. It's a ban on any speech which could be used to play DVDs or other media the way we want. And that's a pretty amazing thing.
To tie in to this article, I will award a Gmail invite for anyone who can prove to me that it's legal under the DMCA to stand on a street corner and recite DeCSS. It is of course illegal, which means that Free Speech is dead in America, but if you manage to prove me wrong and include an address, the invite will be on its way. Good luck!
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
How come they don't GPL the code and make a run for it? I sure would have, if I cared the least about dvd-copying - at least if my company were going bankrupt anyway.
It is not illegal for you to own or use the software. The injunction only applies to 321 Studios.
How long until 321 will be required to hand over their customer list (at least the ones that registered)? If they can force this company out of business, it seems to me the next step is to go after the users. You know, the ones doing the acutal "law breaking".
...3210 Studios.
...their software was horrible. I had nonstop problems trying to use it and tech support was no help at all. The continuously blamed the problems on my system set up. It's funny how all the less expensive software I found on the net works like a dream (never even had a problem setting it up).
I'm glad to see they are gone so othere don't get screwed out of the $100 and countless hours wasted that I did.
I may be just stating the obvious but: This is awful because now the MPAA and RIAA are gonna sue as many of their perceived enemies as possible, hoping to shut them down too. On the bright side, maybe people will use the superior DVD Shrink instead.
It shows a lack of journalistic integrity to completely believe a company for their reasons for going out of business. It could very well be true that the lawsuits seriously put a damper on their plans, but it could ALSO be true that the company was just poorly managed. No one is going to come out and say: "We're going out of business because our managers are a bunch of schmucks and blew all the money on cheap whores and expensive cocaine!"; they're gonna point the finger.
--
Is it me, or did it just get fatter in here?
abandonware?
People will probably distribute the software more overtly as downloads on websites because, who will stop them?
Oh yeah, the MPAA.
Best Windows Freeware
321 were avid e-mail and phone spammer that tried to further their wallets through unsolicited bulk e-mail. I personally shed no tear for a company that STEALS from me each time they send me their spam.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Now, when they are out of bussines, they wouldn't mind "leaking" source code into public. (pref. with BSD licence :) )
For windows the best thing for DVD ripping since sliced bread is Gordian Knot and if you still want to get the most retarded version out there try this. Remember 321 studios made a simplified front end for DVD copying built on some shoddy code, they might have become better in a few generations but the free stuff still works better.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
DVDDecrypter or DVD Shrink. Rip and burn to ISO or another disc. I use DVD-shrink for dual layered discs and then burn the ISO with DVD Decrypter. If you have a single layer you can just use DVD Decrypter to burn the entire disc without edits.
See here for more information on DVD Shrink.
They are both free and work well.
The DMCA expressly forbids systems that bypass copy protection systems, like cracking the CSS encryption codes. Wouldn't software that performs a bitwise direct copy of the encrypted data therefore be legal, as it's not attempting to play the DVD on unauthorized hardware, nor is it decrypting the MPEG-2 stream in any way?
IIRC, 321 Studios is (was) a company in California, USA, right.
So, looks like it's time to open this kind of business in other countries that does not have this kind of draconian laws.
Hmmm... but the DMCA aplies to *sell* this kind of software? If so, the USA market for it is lost.
Scientia est Potentia
"They couldn't afford to do business and fight all the legal fights. They essentially got sued out of existence." That's becoming a far too common theme these days.
If things like DVD shrink are distibuted for free what can they do. Tell the author to stop and then some one else picks up the slack, and the chase starts again.
But when you package the software sell it in retail stores and pretty much stick in front of the industry's face what do you expect them to do? Make better movies in hopes people will be so taken back they have to buy the movie? Spend countless millions developing better security to have it broken in a week or just shut down 321?
1-2-3 strikes you're out!
"Under the DMCA, you have a theoretical right to fair use. But this ruling shows that if you provide a tool for fair use you can't use it."
From NewScientist
As I understand it, there is no legal right to make backups of movies, in the U.S. There is a right to make backups of computer software, but that provision is explicit and does not apply to other forms of content.
Some have argued that fair use would allow making backups of general content, but since such usage is not educational or for research purposes, and would have commercial impact, it seems like a weak argument to me. In any case, it has never been confirmed in the courts.
Interesting. Now that 321 is out of business. DVD X-Copy is now considered fair use under the "software created by company no longer in existance" revision they added.
I heard from a friend that knows someone that knows someone else, that they are moving the business offshore. Not sure if the business will move out of the US, or if the employees will be recieving a paycheck from a company overseas, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
A combination of free and cheap software works much better than 321 Studios' software. DVD Shrink is free, easy to use, and never crashes. Nero can be had as cheap as $5 on the web. This combination is sweet, if you're using DVD-X-Copy or whatever you paid for inferior software.
I one thing that was a disappointment to me when 321 studios started working on this was that I was just switching to mac and they were only supporting windows based systems.
however, there is now an option for mac users.fast dvd copy 2 is awesome. MacWorld just gave it 3 1/2 mouse rating in the latest issue.
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Unfortunatly, arguing the benefits of DVD copying software is an uphill battle. Although there are legitimate uses for such software (for example, getting past all the adverts/crud on the Disney DVDs and getting straight to the movie), ultimately such software will be used twice as much for piracy. This however does not slow piracy down one bit. I didn't even use their software to copy my own DVDs, as there are many free alternatives.
In France where I live, there is a special tax on tapes, CD, DVD, hard disc and maybe other media I've forget. This tax is originaly made to send some money to the artists to balance the effect of music and video piracy. :
I'm very unhappy of this thing
If you buy a CD for your own business, you pay the same tax as a pirate who copy dozens of music CD for money! And the pirate don't care paying a tax beause of piracy!
I think that the problem is in the big music and video ompany : they don't know how to keep their buisness.
I think a few LOL's are in order over this one.
Did anyone _not_ see this coming? The precedent concerning distributing the deCSS had been set long before the company came into existance
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
hopefully they will 'accidentally' release all of their source code
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_U.S._Election_c
The Fairuse wizard is perfect for backing up DVDs to DIVX. I've even used it to view DVDs on my palm. http://fairuse.free.fr/lang_en/
They were beset with legal issues, but especially over the product they were currently building. It was an application that would let you rip your DVDs to your hard disk, auto-recognize and name them (like CDDB does for CDs), organize them, and play them back. Once ripped, you could put your DVDs in the basement and forget about them. The MPAA, etc., did not like this one bit, and ensured that it would never see the light of day.
There are hardware devices that do just this, but they're constructed so as to disallow easy extraction of the DVD data from the device. This precludes the user employing such devices as copying machines. You can't have such assurances from a pure software application on your PC, and that was the crux of 321's problems.
So now that they can't sell their stuff. Please may a rogue 321 developer release the source code?
That's alot of studios that went out of business
I don't understand why the solution that worked for the music world wasn't used here. Back when blank recording cassettes were created and mass marketed, the music industry nearly blew a gasket. The compromise is that TDK/Maxell/Fuji and the rest pay a small portion of their sales to the record companies. Kind of a tithe. While it's still illegal for me to copy my CD's onto cassettes and SELL them to people, I can do it for personal use. Everybody's happy.
So when is the Hawkeye movie coming out?
And shouldn't it read "321 Studios have gone out of business?"
-- Boycott Shell
How many of you bought the extended version of LotR:FotR? LotR:TTT? LotR:RotK? How many will buy the super-special, 20-disk LotR trilogy when it is released?
If you really hate the MPAA this much, stop paying them. They are able to do what they do as a direct result of the money that you provide them with.
Is there something as easy to use as dvdshrink etc. but for linux? Does it run under wine? And retain the menus?
If these people want to do a big "fuck you" to the RIAA and MPAA, they could take the very easy step of leaving a server open and leaking the source code out to the web. But of course... that could be considered illegal under the DMCA!
or some other country with less draconian copyright laws. They could sell their software exclusively through their website. I think that the US would have a difficult time restricting the imports of such an item - especially if they offer a downloadable version.
Seems they went too far with the whole iPod / iTunes thing right?
REAL may be next in line to suffer the same fate, right?
Everyone and his mother is saying that 321 Studios and DVD X-Copy violated the DMCA but they offered no proof or details on how exactly the DMCA was violated.
Did DVD X-Copy use DeCSS?
Did DVD X-Copy do a raw bit copy?
Did DVD X-Copy do some illegal decryption scheme?
What are the details, please!!!
I am in need of a DVD-Ripper/burner for Windows. (Please no trashing windows comments...the applications I use aren't available elsewhere for other platforms).
But I am in a position where I need to perform a task and am unable to do so because there seems to be no software on the market.
Can anyone point me to a tool?
If you go to the website for the Bastard company, http://www.123copydvd.com/, you will notice that the "company" is offering the exact same program. What 321 Studios has effectively done is known as "asset protection", where they branch off a company into a separate Corporation or Limited-liability corporation (LLC) that is untouchable if the prior company is sued and run out of business. 321 studios is still alive, just in another form. I have purchased their 123 copy DVD software, and it is almost identical to the 321 Studios DVD X Copy software.
If you wish to see how damn clever they are, they do not actually include de-cryption software in the product. They do however link directly to a "3rd Party Plugin" site which features a downloadable plug-in which works exclusively with 123 copy DVD.
Talk about legal maneuvering!
I am defenseless. Use your button. Mod me down with all of your hatred.
This, I think, is why people at large don't care about the DMCA: it doesn't affect them directly. It's a lot easier for people to swallow that. Not to mention, of course, that it's easier to go after distributers than individual users.
Any bank robber wouldn't care much about a law targeting getaway drivers, and so the common music/movie pirate doesn't care much about a law targeting companies.
(Now one might say the DMCA is more about targeting drivers that could possibly drive a bank robber, and one might also squabble about the definition of stealing, but that's not the point of this post; the point is why people don't care about the DMCA)
I moved to Brazil. That fixed the problem, for now at least.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
my ROT-13 just got bugged ?!
Mcow.
It's in Finnish: some sick story about a guy walking into a bank with an assault rifle (7.62 RK 62 is standard issue in the Finnish army) and going on a shooting spree.
I think somebody should organize a boycott of any product from RIAA and MPAA for a day. To protest against all these non-legitimate lawsuits and the awful Millenium Copyright Act...
This guy must be Internet addicted http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/04/005243 &tid=133&tid=95
Mcow.
I'm thinking if I'm them... My company's last dying breath is to release the source code to the public domain or as a GPL application.
Sure, one can easily argue that there are other apps that do (IMHO) a better job and are free (like DVD Shrink), but being as high-profile as their company has been the last few months, being that they sell their products in retail stores, a move like that might garner some pretty serious publicity and would surely ruffle the feathers of their adversary.
Even though the cat has been out of the bag for a while regarding CSS, them sending out copies of sourcecode would surely have social/emotional impact.
My guess is that someone there would probably be sent to jail for further violating the DMCA (not only making an anti-circumvention tool that people can use to backup and *gasp* copy DVDs, but giving a bunch of "no good hackers and pirates" the ability to modify the software for other nefarious purposes (oh no!)). But I'm sure there's a way they could get around the law to do it.
"God is dead!" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead!" - God
Sadly they are now irrelevent due to the dual layer burners. There is now much of a need now to shrink dvd's to copy them or break the css either so no DMCA violation since there is no need to break css to do a 1:1 burn. Of course distributing said copies is still copyright infringment, but now we can exersise our fair use rights and back up our legaly purchased dvd's without running afoul of the DMCA. Not that they still won't try to make it seem to be a violation. I got my dl burner just need to find dl blanks, not in the local stores yet.
It seems clear that personal backups are for purposes of protection in case the disk breaks, not for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research. None of those provisions would protect personal backups as fair use. The law goes on to say:
On point 1, personal backups are not for nonprofit educational purposes, but rather to save money in case the disk breaks, which counts as a commercial use. On point 2, the works are typically creative, original commercial works which have the full protection of the copyright laws. On point 3, it is the entirety of the work which is copied, not just an excerpt. And on point 4, the existence of free backups would reduce re-sales of replacement disks, not to mention that it might cut into new sales if the "backups" are illicitly shared.
Based on the text of the statute, personal backups fail every test that would make them fair use. Anyone disagree?
First off, it wasn't a company that "took away your rights". It was a government lawsuit. Secondly, any company will do anything that it can to make a profit within the law. If you don't like the laws, then VOTE. Get this current batch of bastards out of office, and hopefully the new ones will be better. You have no right to bitch if you don't VOTE.
CD Burners don't break laws, people do
Guns don't kill people, people do
Cars don't kill people, people do
Software don't break laws, people do
Knives don't kill people, people do
Sorry but hello law makers please take reeval your prioritys.. If you want to do something good make laws that keep guns out of killers hands, that keep cars out of the hands of drunk drivers and things like that..
Spend more time protecting the PEOPLE not the greedy big business.
Personal Website
Just because the law in the books is written a certain way, it doesn't mean that's how it's interpereted.
If a defence lawyer could show adequate case law to back up his argument (and there is plenty regarding fair use) what the book saws is irrelevant.
morton2002 at myrealbox *d0t* c0m
dork. i haxed your idea.
is that like a girlfriend or something?
The dvd::rip package is great for what it does, but for some reason it doesn't have an option to simply "shrink" a >4.5GB pressed DVD to fit on a 4.5GB DVD-R. It's terribly annoying, but I can't find any other good tools like this for Linux.
Method of processing duck feet
Does anybody know if Dual Layer DVD copying is going to be supported by this DVD Shrink? I know the discs aren't out yet, but I was just wondering...
Today we close our doors as "321 Studios".
Tomorrow we open them as "123 Studios".
This shows the DMCA can be used by the MPAA/RIAA to put legitimate technology companies out of business. But they're hoping for another tool to do even more of this, and it's called the INDUCE act.
Go to EFF's Action Center and savetheipod.com to take action! Let your Senators know that they should be supporting Rep. Boucher's DMCRA rather than INDUCE.
We can turn the tide here if we take action!
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
If the product was formally sold then the DMCA (for media) and EULAs (for software) would have no leg to stand on. No one, except the media/software industry, rents a product which can be easily copied. Instead those products are adjusted so that the sale price is profitable. Instead, software is licensed, via the EULA, and media is licensed for use, defined in terms of the licensing agreement. Consumers no longer buy the product but instead purchase a right to use the license.
What is the difference between a product which is sold and a product which is rented? A product which is sold is the property of the owner and the owner has the right to do with it as they please. A product which is rented is still the property of the owner and the renter is bound by terms of a usage agreement. What, then, is the difference between a product which is licensed and a product which is rented? There is none. When a consumer rents a product they sign a contract accepting terms of use. When a consumer purchases a software/media license they accept a contract accepting terms of use.
Why the jargon difference, then?
The jargon difference is this: the breach of a rental agreement is a civil matter which requires the owner to retain legal counsel and compile a legal case. Consider the rights of landlords, automobile rental agencies, or your local hardware store renting out powertools. The breach of a license agreement has been manipulated to be a felony offense in which the financial burden of investigation has been passed onto the taxpaying public as a whole.
There is not a more blatant example of corporate political graft.
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
The basically smothered 321 Studios with lawsuits until they folded. They weren't even ruled as being illegal.
I'd hate to see what the future brings. If a company doesn't agree with yours, they'll just bombard you with lawsuits and drain your bank.
That's not right at all. There really needs to be a law passed to prevent this type of bully tactic.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
guns dont kill people, people with guns kill people
Guns don't kill people, small pellets of semi-molten metal flying at high speed kill people.
Heroin doesn't kill people, people who { inject it into themselves | sell it to junkies | traffic in it | accept bribes to look the other way | etc } kill people.
Cruise missiles don't kill people, people who { launch them | prep them for launch | write "Dear Dumbshit" on them prior to launch | transport them | manufacture them | contract for them | put them in the budget | think they are politically useful | etc } kill people.
Idiotic reasoning arbitrarily shifting responsibility away from cherished political beliefs doesn't kill people, but it sure feels like it.
Am I the only one who read this as "Lawsuits force three hundred twenty-one studios out of business"? I thought it was some sort of catastrophic crackdown in which the MPAA finally made a bid to take over the world by taking out hundreds of studios.
This sig has been stolen. Return it to its original user for a reward.
I have a lot of software in the closet from the '80s by companies "no longer in business."
If I can legally copy these, or better yet, share copies, I might.
Please describe this exemption and how to use it legally.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I can't tell you how many interesting things I have picked up in slightly off-topic skews.
Yes. That is the main value of slashdot. If it weren't for that, I would have left years ago.
I'm unaware of an authoritative or canonical list of these so-called natural truths. It occurs to me that one person's natural truth is likely to clash directly with another's. No one of us can legitemately claim to have a particular access to any particular objective truth. We've each got our own 'personal truth' and that is natural.
I don't disagree with your claim that people must exercise personal discretion and conscience and challenge laws they percieve as unust. But in doing so, they must be aware it is only their own point of view they represent, their own perception, not any particular idealized or absolute definition of what is true and right. That kind of thinking (that one is in possession of or has access some absolute moral or social truth) doesn't lead in very good directions - I think history speaks to that point.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
...can't the job of DVD X-Copy be done with dd anyhow?
Shit, when I first saw the headline, I thought it was saying that Three hundred and tweny one studios were put out of business... I was thinking it must have been a big day for the MPAA/RIAA/et al. etc.
I've been waiting for months for a pretty hefty rebate. I can buy the 3 programs they are offering me in place of cash for less than my rebate. Grrr... I've written them a polite letter requesting cash. If I don't get it, or at least something that I can re-sell for what my rebate is worth, I'm thinking "class action lawsuit." On the other hand, if enough rebate-holders demand cash, it's probably a matter of time before they go bankrupt.
This is completely insane... I use DVDShrink as well but its the principle of it. Anyone who is "Oh the INDUCE Act is great!" should look at this, this is the future of America in 321 Studios. I can't believe this happened, I wish they put up all their software on FTP again just to piss off the movie studios. If they're losing so much money on pirates, maybe they shouldn't make horrible movies anymore.
mount
Can you prove that DVDXCopy is simply a front-end wrapper for a bunch of open source tools? This has been a "myth" and something people have claimed for quite some time but I've never seen anyone back it up!
I will probably get modded into oblivion for this but i think it has to be done /. who like to whine about this kind of thing but nothing ever gets
done. i think its time that /. show its power in the DMCA and DRM, and *AA playing field.
the web site www.nomoreorin. org com net are currently available. based
on user moderation here is what i plan to do.
.
The recent events of orin hatch, DMCA shinanigans have just gone too far. there are allot of people on
1. Register the domain www.nomoreorin.org and use it for a organizational starting place to campaign against his reelection
2. Gather all of the evidence and bills that he is against peoples rights and is in the pay of the *aa
3. Work to form a grass roots party in his hometown to make sure that he is defeated buy a landslide in the next election.
4. Try to set up rallys and protests in his community with pamphlets that say
1. Your senator wants to outlaw your VCR, Tivo, DVR
2. Your senator wants to outlaw your computer
3. Your senator wants to put viruses and destroy your computer if you do something he doe sent approve of
4. Your senator helped to put an innocent Russian Civilian in jail without due process over writing an essentially legal program.
5. Your senator wants to remove your rights to make backup copies of movies and software that you already own
6. Your senator cares more about the *aa than the people who elected him
7. Your senator has accepted XXXXX$ from these *aa groups
5. Next target any and all politicians that have shown support for the DMCA, INDUCE or have received an money from the *AA
6. If we send a message to the government that clearly states that
1. If you accept any money from the *AA we will see to it that your political career is destroyed.
2. Supporting any bill that restricts a users rights to media he owns will result in your not getting elected.
It is evidently clear that if we do not act now. your right to use a computer or any kind of audio and visual media will be severely restricted.
Depending on the replies to this post i will reserve and set up the
www.nomoreorin.org website.
and will do what i can to help a movement whose time have come
if you have any questions email me at
eric.aint.net (spam proof)
...there is a special tax on tapes, CD, DVD, hard disc and maybe other media I've forget. This tax is originaly made to send some money to the artists to balance the effect of music and video piracy.
This is the same in many countries. I don't know why people brought up in court, for piracy, as a defense. How can it be piracy to copy something when, by just purchasing the medium to copy to is in effect paying the copyright holders?
-- Ed Bugg --You have freedom of choice, but not of consequences.--
This was the end goal, to get them out of business.
If it cant be done via the legal system directly, then just sue them to the point they cant afford to keep fighting.
Its too bad you cant recoup costs from tactics like this.. When you are innocent, but are under attack.
This is the same thing they are trying with other industries as well, such as the gun industry. Expect more, as its VERY effective..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
John Kerry voted FOR the DMCA.
The software has been released into the wild already with several similar things already out there.
Close the office RIAA/MPAA/SPA...that will stop all the copies from going around and friends sharing the software TO COPY DVDS, CDS, AND SOFTWARE.
Dumbfuck nimrod asshats.
....in my opinion is, if big media is successful in prventing DVD copying sofware and thus I cannot make backup copies of my DVDs for backup purposes, when they become unplayable, shouldn't I be entitled to walk into any retail outlet and trade it in for a working copy at no charge?
To paraphrase a administration axiom: When you take a privilege away from a user to do self-maintenance, you become obligated to provide support for whatever you took away from them.
You can fight Deep Pockets, the only problem is the Motivational force behind, the citizens revolting getting to the point that it spawns Revolution."Once American Public get to the point that enough people understand that the Federal Government is not the Be All and End All, of ruling bodies. The States and thier Citizens can take back their ursurped Authority.
The power will have returned to the people. If this does not happen and enough people are angered at the corporations for becoming the defacto ruling party via elected shills.
The paradigm will shift and justice will be served at the end of a gun, and at the start of the Constitutionally provided, chance for change. Always remember the Supreme Court was never given Supreme Authority over the United States Constitution, it was taken upon itself, by the Supreme Court. Article III of the Constitution defines the Supreme Courts role, and it mentions law Under the Constitution but not Over The Constitution. The power was taken By the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803, Marshall). The court established its role as the arbiter of the constitutionality of federal laws, the principle is known as judicial review. As further evidenced by the 17th amendment to the Constitution. "In 1791 the state legislatures ran the United States Senate, but the 17th Amendment passed in 1913, reversed the power of the states, removing their control over Washington and creating two separate and redundant Houses of the People. We never had problems with the Constitution until it changes were enacted to it. It is not a living Document. It is a solid framework, upon which the Nation is built. You do not change the foundation of a house once it is built, without affecting the stability of the very house itself.
This is the beginning of the Individual States Citizen being robbed of thier Judicial Rightss, and the dilution of the Individual States Judicial Power. A clear violation of the seperation, intended by the founding fathers of the United States. They provided for Supreme Court Authority and it was written explicitly.
"Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;--to all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;--to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;--to controversies between two or more states;--between a state and citizens of another state;--between citizens of different states;--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects."
Not enough people Understand the Power they have, the Power they Had, and the Power that was robbed from them. The United States Constitution has become an abstraction to the Citizenry, and that is sad. Malaise and apathy have been fed to the citizenry by the very governing body it has created for itself. The two Political parties, are of no consequence and truly show no differences between themselves. they actually only show thier commonalities. Get elected. Stay Elected. And what can I get while elected. The right to keep and bare arms is so affected as to be almost useless, in effecting a constitutionally provided for Change in governing Body. The right to free speech via Campaign Finance Reform has been abridged. What part of "shall not be abridged" did the Supreme court not Understand? People better start waking up before this goes too, far.
Got an Opinion? Vote and make it count, or STFU.
Mod me as a troll if you want to...
My cat's picked up a Hammer. HEY! Put down that Hammer. Put Down that Hamm...THUNK!
About a week ago I got a call from someone at 321 who told me that they were going to file for bankruptcy in a few days. They also said there was hope for me, since they hadn't written the software and were instead a licensee. I was told that a company called Xsoftware based in Germany actually wrote it and were probably going to start marketing the software again.
While I've been reading the threads saying DVD decryptor or DVDShrink is better, I think a lot of you missed the point. This was real, legit software that you could buy in a retail store and which tried in every way to preserve fair use rights. They put watermarks in and warning screens, etc. to appease the movie studios and ensure their software wouldn't be used by any serious pirates. This was for the average user who can't figure out how to rip VOBs and use DeCSS and all that. It really is a shame they went under.
Here here.
Is there software that can play these files from the HD? (including menus?) -- I bought 400+ DVDs -- I'm just hoping that my DVDs last long enough until terrabyte storage becomes cheap and common. (I'll still buy new DVDs but would like to backup what I have -- having my own on-demand movie server to go along with my personal IMDB-like database would be fun)
One somewhat ironic aspect of this is that 321 Studios used mandatory activation to protect their software (at least with DVD XCopy Express). So if the company totally ceased operation without a successor taking over, there would be no way to install the software they've sold in the past on any new computer.
Apparently that is not the case (at least not yet). According to their FAQ, "You will be able to activate your 321 product online either through the computer where the software is installed or through another computer which is online, using a floppy disk. Telephone activation will not be available."
If you bought DVD XCopy you need a registration key to activate it. I've had problems where I reinstalled an OS or switched a HD and I had to email them for a new key. Now that they're out of business, what's to happen to all those who paid $100+ for their software?
Yeah there are many other options, many available for free, but it was a nice slick interface. The DVD-X-COPY Xpress was a super-easy "1 Click" to copy and burn -- yeah even us Windows users could do it ;)
Ah well, I guess I will have to try out some of the other sugestions I've seen here.
I did my own WHOIS on both domain names, and it turns out that www.123copydvd.com is registered in the US to www.123copydvd.com. The hosting service is NetworkSolutions. http://www.booyakasha.biz/ is registered in Gibraltar to an unknown individual in that country, and the hosting service is also NetworkSolutions.
So, is Ms. Avellano someone who works for Network Solutions dealing with details for fly-by-nights, making me way off my rocker? Two non-NetSolns emails suggest otherwise about the first part at least... =)
Or, is Ms. Avellano a lawyer for each company, behind the attorney-client privilege shield, or perhaps just an employee or officer, with posterior bare to legal barbs, jabs, and pokes? If they used a lawyer, they MIGHT have a chance.. but the shield of attorney-client priviledge can be breached under some conditions.
This again is besides the point: 123 Copy DVD is not selling a product which violates copy protection. But it can be modified to do so.
Of course, by separating the tools, they might make a case for an injunction against distribution only applying to the plug-in, but the concept of "contributory negligence" makes that less likely to fly.
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Ahem...unless you're rich. :-)
Did anyone else read that as "Lawsuits Three hundred and twenty-one studios out of buisness"?
Now that I RTFA, I'm a touch relieved that it was only one studio that went under.
Xcopy has a better compression algorithum than that freeware program. And if you can't tell, get a better system.
you open source idiots are all the same.
Now I don't feel bad about finding a torrent for a cracked copy of it.
George Carlin said this about the structure of Society:
The upper class takes all of the money, does none of the work.
The middle class pays all the taxes, does all of the work.
The poor are there, just to scare the shit out of the middle class.
So how long till you see the former warez copies become available so everyone can download them?! :) :) :)
This is truly a shame for anyone but the media conglomerates.
I bought a copy of DVD X Copy just in hopes that more people would just to spite the media giants that were against it, but alas it wasn't enough. I guess the upside is that there are freeware tools just as good, if not better, that can allow Americans to have their rights and use them too.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
I hope as a last gasp, it leaked out onto the P2P networks.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
1. Don't support them.
/rant on
/rant off
2. Don't support them.
3. DON'T FRELLING SUPPORT THEM!!!
How many of you went to see Spider-Man 2? Just how many MILLIONS OF DOLLARS did you give these bastards? You know who you are. Well, that's just wonderful, now, isn't it? Millions of dollars now in their coffers to support this jihad against fair use. I hope those two hours watching a fictional comic book hero was worth it.
Enact a "loser pays" rule, and enforce it.
That is not the only way to put a stop to these "settle or bankrupt-by-lawyers" cases, but it would be a very good start.
I'm not making a statement as to the merit of the case in question.
The lawyer demographic in the U.S. may be against the loser paying, but might be sold on the idea if you tell them that they might start lawsuits about fees, and then lawsuits about paying the winner in the fees lawsuits, recurse to infinity.
[nitpick]"might've", not "might of".[/nitpick]
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Massive amounts of DVD rips and copies of Movies float around the net due to the availablity of DVD-X copy programs now being turned to 'warez' now that the company that produced it no longer exists and is unable to keep the piracy of their program under wraps....
does anyone else feel like the RIAA is fighting an uphill battle? The more of these things they do, more likely I am to "steal" their product. I won't buy and rarely pay for a commercial entertainment product that they are pushing.
As a last minute middle finger to the entertainment industry, they should open source the DVD copying software, and place it on a foreign server that the US has no access.
At least they won't be spamming any more....
An engineer who ran for Congress. http://herbrobinson.us
Wasn't the point of the legal system once to protect the weak from the poor.
Well, the modern legal system (trial by evidence) replaced an older system, Trial by God.
There were many methods used. One of them involved a red hot iron. If the wound healed quickly, you were judged innocent, and your accuser would have his tongue cut out. But most people were found guilty. Some considered the move to trial by evidence to be an affront to God. As if any man could be a better judge than God.
The aristocracy and warrior class had a different option: Trial by combat.
Note that I'm mainly thinking of Europe in the Middle Ages, as that is where our (USA) legal system comes from.
Heck, I don't even know that much about the French legal system. And the French could be cruel bastards. There is a reason that my ancestors didn't stop running until they were in Russia when they fled the Spanish Inquisition.
But to answer your original question. No, the system has always been settup to protect the rich from the poor. They've needed it when the poor are numerous and desperate.
I hate Liberals and Conservatives.
If you are a Liberal or a Conservative, then HAVE A NICE DAY!
Courage.