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Zediva Fights Back Against MPAA
MoldySpore writes "When Zediva burst onto the streaming scene earlier this year, they managed to do something nobody else was doing. Navigating around the copyright law, they found a way to stream rental movies not currently available on other services, because they were still inside the DVD sales window, and filled a role not currently part of the competitions' services. The service grants a 'rental' of the physical movie to the user, who is then able to stream it over the internet, usually with the option to re-rent after being played. By having it be a rental service, they were able to avoid some of the legalese associated with streaming movies outside of that sales window. Needless to say the MPAA was not pleased. But instead of making nice with the MPAA, Zediva has decided to fight back in the form of expensive legal heavy-hitters from 'elite San Francisco law firm Durie Tangri,' which has forced the MPAA to hire their own team of expensive legal ninjas. Zediva argues what most technologically informed people would when looking at this service: that they are essentially a rental service who are renting physical media, and providing the DVD player and a very long cable to the renter's TV."
The MPAA wants to control the entertainment sphere of the world. They don't want competition from newer more modern companies, so they use the law to guarantee no competition can exist. They don't want the "customer" to have control, they want it so they can maximize profits for themselves.
They just don't care about us the consumer. And they hate the competition. So they win by using the law because they can't win in the market place.
Someone sneaks around behind all their dirty little tricks and they don't like it.
Comes with the territory, boys.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
--Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
I'm not taking the MPAA side here. However...
One could argue that it's streaming if you're transferring data over the wire from a location outside your legal ownership. For example, over a DVI cable would be ok because both the source and destination are usually found in one room. They're found in separate rooms for high-end setups however. Even between two homes that you own might be acceptable (two houses you own on one plot of land). But... the MPAA could argue that if the source is from another building and company rendering services not under your direct ownership, the data is being "Streamed".
Steamed being defined as receiving sourced material from a non-tangable source not in your direct and immediate possession.
Life is not for the lazy.
Hey, guys, for a good time, have a look at On Command Video Corp. v. Columbia Pictures Industries, 777 F. Supp. 787 (N.D. Cal. 1991).
On Command was doing literally this exact thing, but 20 years ago and (1) with VCRs instead of DVD players; (2) with the VCRs at the hotel front desk and you in your hotel room, instead of with the DVD players in California and you anywhere on the Internet.
Things did not work out well for On Command. However, the legal landscape has changed somewhat in more recent years -- a more relevant ruling might be the 2008 Cablevision DVR case (see discussion e.g. at http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2008/08/cablevision-wins-on-appeal-remote-dvr-lawful-after-all.ars.
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Fools. If anything, the movie industry should welcome services like Zediva to buy DVDs in bulk since consumer sales of DVDs are down. Or at least compete by offering "official" streaming at lower prices.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
Netflix and Red Box have blown a hole in DVD sales. It used to be that people would spring ~$15 for a new release to build up their DVD Library. Instead of buying 2 DVD a month they can rent 10 to 30 instead. This is a seachange. Zediva should be able to get away with even fewer DVDs because their turnover is going to be much faster. They won't have to wait for people to mail their CDs back or drop it off. As soon as somebody is done watching they can roll it over to the next.
Streaming, by the way, is not going to make up for lost DVD sales. The studies gets about 80 cents per steam vs a few dollars on a DVD.
Who'd heard of Zediva before this. So, what's cost saving by getting the word out by being sued by MPAA rather than the traditional advertising approach?
I, for one, don't mind your shameless plug as it is at least somewhat informative.
I'm curious, however, as to one of your arguments:
If Zediva is renting out both the DVD and the player somehow - then how does that DVD get out of the DVD box and into the DVD player? Are they auto-loaded? If so - who stocks the auto-loader?
This is aside from technical questions relating to whether they really are just renting out the DVD (given that they effectively transcode its content for viewing, and then stream it to the user.. no matter how much they like to avoid the legal definition of streaming, somehow), and whether or not they really have a whole server farm of actual DVD players playing back actual DVDs (i.e. one DVD + player per viewer of that DVD, and not just a single disc image on HDD/in RAM that gets played back with a user limit so as to be able to claim limited DVD playback), given that you can't access - for example - special features (as per their own FAQ).. which should be entirely possible if this were really just a DVD player being controlled remotely somehow.
Durie Tangri has Mark Lemley on board, probably the most renowned IP scholar currently practicing. He helped put together the google books settlement. This case will definitely be something to watch.
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