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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?
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.
Now, when they are out of bussines, they wouldn't mind "leaking" source code into public. (pref. with BSD licence :) )
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.
"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
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?
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.
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."
Based on the text of the statute, personal backups fail every test that would make them fair use. Anyone disagree?
Well, the EFF and "many lawyers" would disagree.
From their website FAQ on Fair Use:
4. What's been recognized as fair use?
Courts have previously found that a use was fair where the use of the copyrighted work was socially beneficial. In particular, U.S. courts have recognized the following fair uses: criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, research and parodies.
In addition, in 1984 the Supreme Court held that time-shifting (for example, private, non-commercial home taping of television programs with a VCR to permit later viewing) is fair use. (Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, 464 U.S. 417 (1984, S.C.)
Although the legal basis is not completely settled, many lawyers believe that the following (and many other uses) are also fair uses:
* Space-shifting or format-shifting - that is, taking content you own in one format and putting it into another format, for personal, non-commercial use. For instance, "ripping" an audio CD (that is, making an MP3-format version of an audio CD that you already own) is considered fair use by many lawyers, based on the 1984 Betamax decision and the 1999 Rio MP3 player decision (RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia, 180 F. 3d 1072, 1079, 9th Circ. 1999.)
* Making a personal back-up copy of content you own - for instance, burning a copy of an audio CD you own.
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 ----
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."
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...