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MPAA Fires Back at AACS Decryption Utility
RulerOf writes "The AACS Decryption utility released this past December known as BackupHDDVD originally authored by Muslix64 of the Doom9 forums has received its first official DMCA Takedown Notice. It has been widely speculated that the utility itself was not an infringing piece of software due to the fact that it is merely "a textbook implementation of AACS," written with the help of documents publicly available at the AACS LA's website, and that the AACS Volume Unique Keys that the end user isn't supposed to have access to are in fact the infringing content, but it appears that such is not the case." From the thread "...you must input keys and then it will decrypt the encrypted content. If this is the case, than according to the language of the DMCA it does sound like it is infringing. Section 1201(a) says that it is an infringement to "circumvent a technological measure." The phrase, "circumvent a technological measure" is defined as "descramb(ling) a scrambled work or decrypt(ing) an encrypted work, ... without the authority of the copyright owner." If BackupHDDVD does in fact decrypt encrypted content than per the DMCA it needs a license to do that."
Yeah I know we're drooling over the resolution and quality of HD, but as a matter of principle, why note vote with your wallet and don't buy a single HD/BR movie? Or is it OK for us to be treated like criminals, in the hope that we accept such treatment?
I know for sure that I won't be buying any HD/BR media, ever, till this DRM mess is sorted out.
Close. The misnomer "Intellectual Property" is typically a trifecta - Copyright, Patent and Trademarks. It would be difficult to bring a trademark suit into this matter since the author of this tool is not misrepresenting their tool under the auspices of a tool trademarked by another company.
Patents are an easy one. If the AACS encryption is covered by patents(which it probably is) there's a good case for patent infringement. I won't go this particular here. As far as I am concerned, if the encryption can be broken by information release by the patent holder outside of the realm of a patent application, it's fair game.
Copyrights are a tough nut to crack. Without the DMCA, the tool would probably fall under fair use. With DMCA provisions, it would most likely qualify as an 'circumvention' device. Very sad, but under existing law, it's unavoidable.
Solution?
1) Ignore the laws. Release the software from an unfriendly neighbor country.
2) Lobby.
3) Lawyer up.
4) Start shooting lawmakers.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
DVD Decrypter is easy to find, but Lightning UK was forced to stop development and take down the original site because of legal threats. Fortunately he continued to develop the excellent burning portion of the program with ImgBurn. As a result of the legal threats DVD Decrypter itself is now outdated as it cannot handle the some of the latest copy protections without assistance. RipIt4Me is a much better option for the latest DVD releases.