Hollywood Escalates "DVD Ripping" Case To International Incident (torrentfreak.com)

A group of Hollywood studios and technology partners have asked the U.S. Government to assist in solving a long-running court battle against the Antique based software company SlySoft. Despite an earlier conviction SlySoft continues to offer its DVD and BluRay ripping tools. To progress the matter, rightsholders have asked the U.S. to place Antigua on the Priority Watch List. "Circumvention through programs such as SlySoft's AnyDVD HD is a source for widespread, large-scale and commercial copyright infringement by users located in the United States, as well as Antigua & Barbuda, and many other countries," AACS writes (pdf).

Comments

Jurisdiction

[ZorinLynx]

Slysoft is not in US jurisdiction, so it doesn't have to follow US law. Full stop.

They should tell Hollywood to get bent. Piracy is going to happen regardless of what they do; this is money wasted anyway.

Re:Jurisdiction

[davester666]

Antigua is permitting this to happen LEGALLY, because quite some time ago, the US lost a ruling by the WTO that they were improperly blocking betting and gambling services in Antigua. http://www.ip-watch.org/2014/04/26/antigua-questions-efficacy-of-wto-dispute-system-over-ip-related-case/

The US does not wish to follow the WTO ruling, so Antigua is permitted to do this.

Hollywood knows this.

Re:Jurisdiction

[ikejam]

Yes and hence the ridiculous provisions in the TPP (as if a secret international treaty wasnt creepy enough)

For example,

"The TPP requires that signatories hold civilly liable any person who “circumvents without authority any effective technological measure that controls access to a protected work,”[115] or otherwise makes available devices or products or service that are intended to circumvent[116] or have only limited commercial purpose other than to circumvent[117] or are primarily designed to circumvent.[118] There is no requirement that the infringing party be aware of their infringement in order to be held civilly liable (no knowledge requirement). The TPP requires that signatories provide for criminal penalties for persons who engage in these activities and are found “to have engaged willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.”[119]

From wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

It's signed but not yet ratified. It's only 16 countries or so not the whole world.

Yet.

Re:Jurisdiction

[Dutch Gun]

Personally, I've never actually used my copy of AnyDVD to pirate anything. I've used it to rip my legally purchased copies of DVDs and Blurays to my media server. I'm not doing anything wrong by using the content I bought and paid for how I wish. I'm sure they'd likely disagree, but they can piss off.

Nowadays, I actually use streaming services more often than not, since they're convenient and reasonably priced. Do you know what makes me want to actually switch to pirated content instead?

1) Insane prices for watching previous seasons of a show (either rentals or purchase), when Hulu is only showing the latest season.
2) The bright, distracting network logo Hulu pastes in the corner of the picture for the entire duration of the show.

Can you imagine going to a movie theater and being subjected to an image of the movie company's logo in the corner of the screen for the duration of the show? Why does anyone believe this is acceptable for television? When the pirated content is superior to the paid-for content, that's not a good sign.

Re:Jurisdiction

[tinkerghost]

Finding out what actually is being asked for is left as an exercise to the reader. Invasion

Antiqua doesn't have any oil so it doesn't need any freedom.

Re:Do People Still Watch DVDs?

[hawguy]

Who bothers with DVDs anymore? Unless your tastes are way off the beaten track, everything you might want is available for streaming anyway.

There are still many DVD's that I can buy used cheaper than the "own it on streaming" price, *and* the DVD is really mine, so I can rip it to multiple formats for playing on a TV of mobile device. It's not like a streaming move that I "own" where the streaming provider decides where I can watch it, and can lock me out of my owned movie for any reason, including bankruptcy.

Though as people move towards streaming, there are fewer deals to be had on used DVD's.

Antigua and Barbuda are in the right

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the Hollywood studios don't even have the law on their side in this case.
What Slysoft is doing is actually legal under WTO rules because the US was found
to be in violation regarding offshore internet gambling. The WTO ruled that Antigua and
Barbuda are legally entitled to ignore US copyright (to the value of the judgement) as a
result. What the US government has been doing in regard to this is disgusting frankly.
They have threatened to retaliate against Antigua and Barbuda should they choose to
actively exercise this right, even though the ruling went against them. Funny how when
the ruling goes for the US the other country is obligated to follow it, but when it goes
against them it doesnt. Arrogant doesnt begin to describe this behaviour.

https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds285_e.htm

Re:Do People Still Watch DVDs?

[BLKMGK]

Folks that want higher quality? That want the extras? Folks with data caps? Folks that want stuff after the streaming service drops it? Folks don't want to be tracked or pay a monthly fee?

How long a list you need?