Kaleidescape CEO Speaks Out About CSS Lawsuit

An anonymous reader writes "Engadget has an interview with Michael Malcolm, the CEO of Kaleidescape, which you might remember as the high-end DVD jukebox manufacturer that was sued by the DVD Copy Control Association for violating its CSS license. Despite the fact that anyone who can afford a $27,000+ DVD jukebox also usually ends up buying hundreds of movies to load onto it, the DVD-CCA wants them to redesign the Kaleidescape to require the presence of the physical DVD disc in the drive during authentication and playback. Besides defeating the whole purpose of having a jukebox in the first place (none of their jukeboxes allow for copying, streaming, or sharing DVDs), Malcolm says he can't find any clause in their CSS license which would require them to implement this "feature" anyway and they're about to file a counter-action against the DVD-CCA."

Comments

When you are trying to put a lock on air ...

[GNUALMAFUERTE]

You will find yourself taking messures that in any other situations would be ridicoulous. This happends with copyright, it's an UNNATURAL law, and so, it's unenforceable. If you try to charge people for the air they breath, or for what they think about, you will find that this are basic freedoms of the human been, and that, because of their nature, it's allmost impossible to measure / control / quote them. But there is a HUGE bussines built arround copyright low, and the big boys making tons of money out of it won't just let it go, so, expecto more and more ridicolous ideas and restrictive methods in the future. They just won't stop.

ALMAFUERTE

Mac OS X has "jukebox" feature, too

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this different from the feature in Mac OS X which lets you drag copy a mounted DVD to your hard disc for playback later? You just need to have the physical DVD disc in the drive the first time Apple's DVD Player plays the hard disc version to prove that you own the physical DVD. I guess it must copy the DVD CSS key to your hard disc somewhere.

Re:DVD CCA is almost right

[norminator]

Kaleidescape does store the DVD copies encrypted on the server. It makes a bit-for bit copy. The decryption is done at the player. Everything streamed across the network is encrypted.

Re:What they are afraid of

[TiggertheMad]

If someone can afford a $27,000 system (starting price) I really doubt they're going to be worried about recouping their $19.95 investment on a DVD or screwing with eBay to do it...

Hell, I can't afford a 27k system to watch movies on and I wouldn't bother selling stuff I copied on E-Bay. I buy movies for between $10-20. I might get half of that back. My time is worth more than that.

The only time I have any real urge to pirate movies, is when I have to deal with fisking region encoding BS, CSS, and Macrovision. These things irritate me to the point that I want to make sure that whatever company has troubled me by using these 'features', doesn't make a DIME off of me.

I'll gladly pay for a physical copy of a movie I enjoy. Just don't tell me I can't watch a copy of a movie from china that Miramax hasn't yet ruined through editing, use my PC to watch it, or force me to sit through some sutpid 'coming to dvd soon' ad, and you will get no trouble out of me...