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Tenative Ruling Against Kaleidescape in DVD CCA Case

Posted by Unknown on from the your-license-means-what-we-say-it-means dept.

An anonymous reader wrote in with an update in the long drawn out legal proceedings between the DVD CCA and Kaleidescape, a manufacturer of a video jukeboxes. Despite a victory by Kaleidescape in 2007, they ended up back in court in November 2011. The DVD CCA insisted that ripping a DVD was in violation of the license granted to Kaleidescape; Kaleidescape disagreed since their jukebox made a bit-for-bit copy of the disc rather than first decrypting the contents. Unfortunately, in a preliminary ruling, the court agrees with the DVD CCA. Kaleidescape has released a statement.

13 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously by bobstreo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Judge has received some re-election funds from the MPAA

    1. Re:Obviously by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The Judge has received some re-election funds from the MPAA

      Just because you don't like the ruling, doesn't necessarily mean it's contrary to the law.

      That being said, the MPAA and RIAA have been instrumental in writing the laws, so...

    2. Re:Obviously by Ramin_HAL9001 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Until they declare it illegal to resell DVDs or they tie the content to a specific piece of hardware for playback.

      The bittorrent pirates couldn't dream of a better justification in the popular mind. .... If the cartels clamp down too hard, no amount of PR will prevent it from being generally known that they are a bunch of assholes and control freaks who will never be satisfied.

      I think you put way too much faith in the general public's attention span.

      If the MAFIAA were to use their political clout and pass laws that made it illegal to watch a movie without a specific piece of hardware, which they have already done in a way, using region codes and forcing DRM on downloaded music, people will just sit back and take it, and continue to repeat the propaganda spoon-fed to them. "Its good for the economy, they have the right to make money in whatever way they want, pirates are bad, baaah baaah baaah baaah."

      No one notices just how many liberties we have lost over the past 20 years (ironically, more and more so as technology has improved) because no one knows the technology well enough to know when a politician is passing yet another law to take their freedoms and property rights away. They think, "as long as I don't vote for those big-government Democrats, I'll be safe." If only it were that easy.

    3. Re:Obviously by SlithyMagister · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Judge has received some re-election funds from the MPAA

      Just because you don't like the ruling, doesn't necessarily mean it's contrary to the law.

      That being said, the MPAA and RIAA have been instrumental in writing the laws, so...

      It's the LAW I don't like

      However your comment is a beautiful encapsulation of the entire problem.
      First, the courts are for sale, since judges are elected.
      Second, the people who write the laws are for sale.

      American politicians are little more than puppets for the wealthy and powerful to play with.

    4. Re:Obviously by EdIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

      which they have already done in a way, using region codes and forcing DRM on downloaded music

      Uhhhh, not they have not. Purchased music is widely available in DRM-free formats and has been for some time now.

      Region codes do not force a specific piece of hardware at all. You still require a basic DVD-ROM to even begin to physically read the disk. I don't think that is forced, and certainly not by law. You have a choice of DVD hardware to purchase. Additionally, as stupid as region codes were, they were incredibly easy to bypass, even for the most unsophisticated person. When purchasing a new DVD-ROM you get to set the region code. At least on the last couple I purchased, and you could reset it up to five times. I believe I even found some DVD players that ignored region codes entirely. I can't say for sure... but I imagine they would be quite popular in some places.

      You missed his point. The populace usually does not notice until you stop them from doing something they want and without an exceptionally good reason.

      Telling people that a DVD jukebox is illegal, when they purchased the jukebox and all the movies, is something that they will notice and get pissed about. Once that happens, that is all the motivation they need to bring out Google, start talking to friends, and then..... welcome to the world wide web of pirating.

      In my experience, once somebody finds out how easy it is to get stuff for free, they never pay again. I will pay for music, software, and DVDs out of principle, but I know I am not in the majority.

      The poster you are replying to is right. The absolute last thing the content companies want is to provide motivation for people to get educated on their options. That is because none of those options is good for the content companies, even the legal ones.

    5. Re:Obviously by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Not necessarily. Or at least, in my experience.

      Take my dad. The most un-technical person on this planet outside of an Amish village. Lately, he actually replaced his VHS recorder with a DVD player. He is, though, a person who doesn't give half a shit about "the economy" as long as he doesn't profit from it. As it is with most people around Europe, I might add. Sadly, he also doesn't give too much about his liberties. As does most of Europe...

      But he has a keen sense about being ripped off. And being ripped off includes everything he's used to and cannot do anymore. He's used to borrowing movies from a friend. Take that from him and he'll certainly notice. And not in a good way. And as much as he is a die-hard conservative, something like that won't sit well with him.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Technology could be so cool by ichthus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Technology could be so much better if the damned companies would just get out of our way:

    -Let us tether our phones. Don't make us jailbreak/root the things to get the bandwidth and features we pay for. The phones are perfectly capable, so stop stifling us!

    -Let us watch our movies on whatever device we want, whenever we want, without having to crack/decrypt or download someone else's cracked/decrypted copy.

    -Embrace streaming. The infrastructure is there. The technology is mature. Drive-in theaters died a long time ago, and so will megaplexes. Deal with it. Stop fighting Netflix. Stop trying to cling onto your antiquated distribution platform.

    I'm sure I have other rants, but I won't be able to think of them until my vein recedes back into my forehead.

    --
    sig: sauer
    1. Re:Technology could be so cool by Dan667 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      it is not nickel and diming, it is insisting on being a horse and buggy maker in a car world. The RIAA and MPAA are throwing away huge wads of money to cling to a business model that no longer works.

    2. Re:Technology could be so cool by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd agree with two out of three but frankly the world was a better place before the iPhone and everybody trying to use a wireless like a landline. there is only a limited amount of wireless bandwidth you know, and in many places its already saturated to the max just with all the teens blabbing their asses off all day, tethering your laptop and trying to treat it like a landline just makes the whole thing suck worse for everyone else. Wait until you fucking get home or use Wifi dude, don't be a bandwidth piggie.

      As for TFA all my customers are switching to media tanks so meh to the MPAA. Once they are all using Nboxes and WDTVs I'm sure they'll find out about the wonders of TPB, just another case where the pirated version is the better version. i mean here it is 2012 and they expect people to feed discs into the thing like its 1997, wake up and smell the technology jerks! Music has already gone to MP3 because with no DRM they'll play anywhere, yet here they are saying only this DRM encrusted crap is the only way you can play a movie. Well i hate to break the news to them but MP3 didn't become the default format because the record companies liked it, it became the default because of piracy, because people wanted easy and simple which the record companies didn't give them. The same thing is happening with movies as even that $40 DVD player from Walmart is now playing DivX .avi and MKV files. Do they think grandma is making MKVs of the kid's baseball game? nope its just folks bypassing the bullshit yet again.

      It took years of dragging the record companies before we could bring their stupid asses to the giant money trough that is selling MP3s, it looks like it'll be another decade to do the same to the MPAA. What a bunch of total dipshits, they'd rather spend millions in bribes trying to make the world 1979 again than face the fact that times change, just retarded.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
  3. Re:DVD ? DVDead. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What the MPAA wanted to make sure is that a Kalidescape system didn't become an everyday item. The technology is Kalidescape is not that difficult, and today you can do the same with:

    1. NAS storage server
    2. Computer with ripping software of your choice
    3. XBMC running on cheap receivers.
    4. Download movie/tv info from tvdb.com/IMDB/etc.

    All of the above can be put together for well under $1000.

    What a company cannot do in the US is put all of the above together into an easy to setup package. Kalidescape got away with it by exploiting language in the CSS licensing agreements, but it appears that they will finally be shut down. Just another reason to never do business in the US.

  4. Re:attack on media streamers, overall? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Every other media player out there has skirted the law by not providing the crucial component (codec or decrypting library) as part of the default product sold in the US. When you connect the product, the necessary components are downloaded from a country that has no such restrictions. Kaliedescape and one other now defunct media management company were the only companies who tried to legally build a compliant product. Unfortunately media companies in their always unwillingness to adapt, don't see their efforts in that way.

  5. Stop Posting Links to Slashdot Fucktards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Look, if you want to post a story fine. But imbed links to the real stories and news articles not back to Slashdot so that we have click on another link for fucks sake. If you have enough time to make a link to slashdot, you have enough fucking time to link to a useful fucking article. Like what the fuck??!!!! Fuck off already. Do you think having more links makes the story better. Fine then make two or three links to the same story, but make it to an ACTUAL FUCKING NEWS ARTICLE! Not back to slashdot. Jesus H Fucking Christ already.

  6. Most ridiculous lawsuit ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    DVD CCA must be the most idiotic organization in the world. Why would you sue a company who provides the equipment to your boss's villas, yachts and planes? As someone who works in the industry and installs these systems II can guarantee you that every single one of the movie studio executives will have a Kaleidescape system in every single property or yacht they owe.

    And who would seriously slash out between $10 000 and $1 000 000 on a Kaleidescape system just so that they could make copies of DVD's they don't owe? Who are the DVD CCA trying to kid?