Slashdot Mirror
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?
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
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...
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.
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".
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?
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?
"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?
"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.
Thats simple to avoid. It gets on a p2p network like emule and it doesn't go away.
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?
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.
they ARE right, legally speaking
Legally speaking King George was right and we founded an entire nation by challenging that. I can never see why people have such great respect for laws which can be so easily manipulated when history has shown that we have a moral obligation to challenge laws which are in violation of natural truths. In the case of the DMCA, the natural truth is: "If you sell something to me it's mine and I can do with it as I please."
+++ATHZ 99:5:80
The problem is not about people breaking the laws, it is about corporations making them. Yes, I think the RIAA should go after the people DISTRIBUTING, there copyrighted material. When they talk to the media it is people downloading or "stealing", but it is actually the people that have material available for other people to download. I don't think it is smart business move, and I go to www.riaaradar.com before I will buy anything because of it, but they are within their legal rights. What I have a problem with, is them pushing congress to make copyright violation a federal offense, extend copyrights to longer than a lifetime, or laws like the DMCA wich make it illegal to be capable of breaking the law. Lets just break everyones legs so that no one will be allowed to Jay walk. Show me a precise reason where it is different. Most people will agree that breaking everyones legs is just somehow wrong. Taking away the right to use my computer for legitimate purposes is also just plain wrong. America was designed to be a capitolistic society. If they need a monopoly to make money, they do not need to control our goverment. I am not sure about the exact figures, but actually stealing a CD from a store is a misdomeaner with around a $250 fine, maybe a few months on probation. "Download" the CD and it becomes a $15,000 per song violation with an average of 13 songs per CD. The law is obviosly biased towards to corporation. /rant
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
Encrypted Original ---DVD X-Copy---> Unencrypted Working Copy Produced.
The original encrypted copy was decrypted for the purpose of making a copy. 321 sold this software. The former is not expressly forbidden by the DMCA, the latter is.
DVD X-Copy is not illegal, nor is using it for fair use, but distributing it in any way IS illegal.
(At least, that's how I understand it).
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
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?
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
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
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 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)
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 ----
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.
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."
... you're on to something there.
In order to re-compress DVD data to fit on a single layer disc, you have to circumvent CSS encryption. But if you're just doing a raw sector copy, you don't. Arguably.
I suppose they'll just argue that by reading raw sectors, you're circumventing DRM. Then they'll lobby Congress to outlaw disk editors and undeleters, and require file system drivers to be digitally signed by the MPAA.
Yes and no. Many DVD apps (for windows anyway) can play a DVD Directory containing the VOB files etc. But an even easier way is to use the Daemon Tools and mount the ripped ISO as a Virtual DVD drive and play it from that. CrownRai
Terabyte storage shouldn't be that hard to arrange nowadays. From newegg.com:
5 x WD 250 GB SATA 7200 rpm ($170 ea)
5 x Kingwin KF-72 drive tray ($13 ea)
Adaptec 2810SA 8 channel SATA RAID card ($499 ouch)
Lian-Ling Case w/6 external 5.25" bays (CDR+drives) ($111)
400W CoolMax CX-400B power supply (zillion choices here, just picked one) ($38)
$1565, add the motherboard/processor combo of your choice, add RAM and a small boot drive (setup the 5 big drives as a big RAID), and whatever incidentals you need to finish it out (I'm lazy and didn't want to spend the time).
You could probably finish out this storage server for something like $2K or so using AMD proc/mb (don't need top of the line to share a big array). 5 drives gets you a useable 1 TB. 8 channel controller gives you the ability to enlarge the array at a later date if you wish (of course you had better be willing to re-encode or backup your data to do this).
Point is, it's doable for what I consider to be a reasonable price, if I was doing DVD archival. Should be fast as hell too...
Secondly, there is really no "arguably" about it -- a dd doesn't produce any unencrypted copies. It's simply recreating the cyphertext.
True enough--but here's something else to think about. If you try to copy encrypted VOBs with Windows, you get an "access denied" error; it won't even copy the ciphertext. I don't think the MPAA would have much trouble convincing a judge that going underneath the file level to the sector level is therefore circumventing an access control, regardless of whether the control model is in Windows or the disk itself. Kind of a scary thought.
Ditch the RAID card. Add some ordinary SATA controllers to your PC. Do software raid on linux, using an XFS, JFS, or ReiserFS filesystem. Get a motherboard with GigE onboard. This should keep your cost down dramatically, I think you could do the whole thing under $1500. 256MB would be plenty of memory but 512MB would allow for more caching.
A RAID controller is mandatory if your CPU is doing anything else on the system, but if all it's doing is providing NAS, then doing software RAID is the best way to go as it is a lot cheaper and dedicating a ~2GHz 32 bit processor to the job is going to be faster than the RAID controller anyway.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"