DVDFab Has Ignored Court's Shut Down Order, AACS Says (torrentfreak.com)

An anonymous reader cites a report on TorrentFreak: DVDFab has failed to cease its operations in the U.S. and should be sanctioned, AACS says. The decryption licensing outfit founded by Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft, Intel and others, informs a New York federal court that DVDFab's parent company has blatantly ignored a permanent injunction that was issued last year. In 2014 decryption licensing outfit AACS LA initiated a renewed crackdown on DRM-circumvention software. The company, founded by a group of movie studios and technology partners, sued the makers of popular DVD and Blu-Ray ripping software DVDFab in a New York federal court. After a brief legal battle the court ruled in favor of AACS, issuing an injunction based on the argument that the "DVDFab Group" violates the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause, since their software can bypass DVD and Bluray encryption. Among other things, the injunction barred DVDFab from distributing its software in public and allowed AACS to seize a wide range of domain names. The crippling injunction seemed to work, but not for long. In a new court filing, AACS notes that the software vendor briefly blocked U.S. purchases but went back to business as usual soon after (PDF).

Comments

douche-nozzles injunction

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I go to court and get an injunction against AACS being douche-nozzles?

Re:douche-nozzles injunction

[Anonymous Coward]

But that's their best feature!

Re:douche-nozzles injunction

[houstonbofh]

Can I go to court and get an injunction against AACS being douche-nozzles?

Already done... You see the AACS are ignoring the WTO order allowing them to pirate software directly to recoup online casino losses from the illegal US actions.

Re:douche-nozzles injunction

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I can see DVDFab doesn't even have a US "operation". AACS is whining because people in the US can buy and download the software from the DVDFab site.

DVDFab is under no obligation to block anyone from their site. AACS and the US government has precisely zero authority over them.

Re:douche-nozzles injunction

[Anonymous Coward]

What?

Re:douche-nozzles injunction

[houstonbofh]

The US violated trade agreements against antigua, and lots at the WTO. And DVDFab is based in Antigua... (Probably for this exact reason) http://patentlyo.com/patent/20...

put comey and these idiots in a room

[TheGratefulNet]

and let them fight it out.

comey wants to outlaw encryption.

that stupid trade group wants ONLY encryption.

#include <popcorn.h>

lol

Re:put comey and these idiots in a room

[IMightB]

No he only wants to to ban it for the peasants. (ie us)

Re:put comey and these idiots in a room

[The Grim Reefer]

That's a great idea. Only a terrorist would want to use encryption. Perhaps the the entire R/MIAA should be sent to Gitmo.

And I think we can make it revenue neutral, or even make a profit. We'll sell tickets to anyone who would like to waterboard them. After all, they must be hiding something on those disks. Why else would they encrypt them? Or people can pay to choose which song will be blasted in their cell. Kind of like a torture jukebox.

Re:put comey and these idiots in a room

[WolfgangVL]

Kind of like a torture jukebox.

This is my new favorite thing.

Re:put comey and these idiots in a room

[93 Escort Wagon]

If the use of encryption is banned in the United States (for private individuals), terrorists will probably start mailing encrypted Blu-Ray disks, containing operational instructions, to each other. Suggested titles might include "Mullahs Gone Wild" and "Three Men and a Fatwah".

Re: put comey and these idiots in a room

[bursch-X]

Apple is offering the Evil Genius(TM) service that'll analyze your iTunes DB and find exactly the songs you can't stand. They bundle it with their new iBoard waterboarding device available in 7 exciting colours.

Re:put comey and these idiots in a room

[Bob the Super Hamste]

does it have to be a song?

Evil Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Re:Evil Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

"Not after we demonstrate the capabilities of this station."

Re: Evil Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't be so fond of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to decrypt DRM is insignificant next to the power of the force.

Re:Evil Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

Turn on the video editors when ready!

available everywhere but the publishers?

[laurencetux]

not knowing how good of a program it is but i would bet that the "Usual Suspects" have copies more or less at all times within hours of a new version coming out.

This is like Jurassic Park and thinking those dinos would not breed.

Re:available everywhere but the publishers?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is a very useful program for making backups of your DVD & BluRay collection. That is their main selling point. Have used it for years. Saves the wear and tear on my disc collection and allows me to store them in a safe place. Then I can watch them with PowerDVD straight from my hard drive.

And they do publish updates very soon after a new protection scheme comes out.

Re:available everywhere but the publishers?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the exact use case I use it for. I have a mountain of DVDs and blurays. Ripped them all down to ISOs and let KODI figure it out.

When you have a couple of dozen DVDs it is not that big of a deal. When you have 300 you used to be able to buy a carousel from sony. Which was frankly fairly sucky at what it did. The bluray version was stupid expensive.

When you get to 2700+ discs though carousels are meaningless and useless. So now I rip everything and box up the discs.

Re:available everywhere but the publishers?

[HiThere]

Ok. That's a good reason for making it illegal. Copy protected media SHOULD be too inconvenient to use.

Well, OK, that was a bit of a snark. But I refuse to buy any copy protected CD, DVD, or BluRay because I insist on backups and I prefer to obey the law. So if I can't get a version that isn't copy protected, I won't buy it. I've found that I haven't missed anything important.

Re:available everywhere but the publishers?

[Anonymous Coward]

As far as I know, DMCA is still at odds with the fair use people, it's just that the fair use people don't have as much money to fight it.

If you use a media server and have a couple hundred Blurays sitting around you'd like to stream throughout your house, DVDFab is immensely useful. MakeMKV chewed through about 75% of my discs no problem, but DVDFab finds a way to get the rest, including ripping SBS 3D blurays.

In 2016 I'm not sure why I'm not allowed to enjoy all my past media purchases in the way I want to enjoy them. I'd rather not have to spend thousands of dollars to get the digital versions from iTunes or whatever when I have them right here already.

Maybe AACS should work with DVDFab to watermark rips or something so if they make it to the wild (which usually happens as an inside job, BTW) they can trace it back to someone. I'm fine with that. There are a lot of law-abiding reasons to use DVDFab and others like it.

I think DVDFab is Chinese anyway, so the don't give two sh**s about our dumb laws.

Re:available everywhere but the publishers?

[Anonymous Coward]

In 2016 I'm not sure why I'm not allowed to enjoy all my past media purchases in the way I want to enjoy them. I'd rather not have to spend thousands of dollars to get the digital versions from iTunes or whatever when I have them right here already

Because you're supposed to pay and pay and pay again for everything you own. How else the economy will survive?

dvd is useful - please fight

[late_game_reviewer]

I have an authistic kid when mental problems. He doesn't give a shit about ads, their stupid dvd intro for 10 minutes. he just wants to play his dvd from disney. Just press play and BAM, his cartoon plays, nothing else, no ads, no intro nothing just the movie. So yeah, I copy all my dvd content, remove that fucking shitty drm my SON doesn't need and make a dvd or copy it to a usb and put it on his tablet so he doesn't freak out with ads, scream at me and probably has a wish to insert his tablet in my asshole by any means

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

You obviously don't have an authistic kid bud...

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you missed the "autism" part. There's nothing normal about this situation.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[jedidiah]

Being exposed to commercials isn't good for anyone.

Your argument could pretty much be applied to any aspect of technological progress from the last 500 years. Your theocratic notion of self-flagellation is outdated already.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming the child has full blown autism, he will be spending his entire life in care. Only if he is very lucky will he escape the prison of his own senses.

So there's nothing unhelpful about it. His son will ALWAYS have someone to help him, even if he never has a job and never has any income (which is likely), and even if he loses financial support from family... he'll be committed if it goes that far.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

As another parent of an autistic kid, my reply to you, AC, is FUCK YOU! (and yes, I'm fully aware I'm posting as an AC as well, thanks for stating the bloody obvious!)

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[BitZtream]

I don't either, but I have successfully predicted 4 different couples were going to have 'autistic' children before they had even conceived the child based simply on their behavior. Its actually fairly easy to spot, the parents are nut jobs who do everything over the top in some way or another. The parents react as if they are meeting the definition of autistic, why would the children be any different? Its not genetic, its environmental in these cases.

At this point I'm 4 out of 5, and the 5th hasn't been born yet.

You know why there are so many autistic children all of the sudden? Because they changed the way its classified to be utterly fucking stupid and in reality its the shitty parents that create the situation rather than the kids actually having a problem.

YES, there are children with real social issues, but thats a small percentage of the ones diagnosed as such.

Just because someone gets a diagnoses ... doesn't make it right.

And the GP you're replying to has a perfectly valid point, even if you just don't like it cause it hits too close to home. Perhaps you should stop trying to absolve yourself of all responsibility for your actions and stop trying to blame your creation on a non-existent medical condition, em?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[BitZtream]

Your theocratic notion of self-flagellation is outdated already.

Sure is a lot easier on you that way isn't it ... oh wait ... that was exactly his point, way to prove it for him.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

The parents react as if they are meeting the definition of autistic, why would the children be any different? Its not genetic, its environmental in these cases.

Autistic parents having autistic children is pretty much the goddamn definition of genetic, dumbass.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

And once again we see that unsolicited parenting advice never, ever comes from someone who knows what the fuck they're talking about.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[110010001000]

I'm not autistic and I don't want to watch all those ads either. Who does?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[CCarrot]

As another parent of an autistic kid, my reply to you, AC, is FUCK YOU!

(and yes, I'm fully aware I'm posting as an AC as well, thanks for stating the bloody obvious!)

Unfortunately, there persists this stubborn subset of morons in society that continue to believe that mental diseases are imaginary, so people with autism or clinical depression must be "faking it", that they just have to "toughen up" or some shit like that.

Ironically enough, it's often these self same people who have a morally-outraged meltdown whenever they see a mom-n-pop store entrance that has a bit of a step up, or an elevator without braille on the floor selector buttons. Apparently it's absolutely vital for everyone to accommodate certain types of ability impairment, but accommodating other types is somehow 'babying' them.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Threni]

I think you've perhaps read The Psychopath Test or something and decided from that that because a lot of people have children who are incorrectly diagnosed autistic, that it therefore follows that no children are autistic. If so than you are incorrect, because there are perfectly meaning, consistent and useful tests for autism which can help prevent a child from being treated like a bad person, or retarded, or whatever.

You sound like you believe you're very intelligent, though, so you probably won't stop and think about this.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[CCarrot]

I'm not autistic and I don't want to watch all those ads either. Who does?

Advertising monkeys checking out the competition, maybe?

Other than that, I have no earthly idea...

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[DogDude]

Just use DVD Shrink. Still works fine.

Re: dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

What about just killing them? You know, like in Europe.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[doconnor]

I know Disney was bad at first, but for at least the last 10 years Disney DVDs give an explicit option to skip ads.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

I respect the burden you bear with your son.

But it's funny that I remember in the VHS days, all of the ad stuff was at the end of the feature...

But this is sad. I won't buy a BD if I can't play it. My Suny BD player will not play a BD bit-for-bit, it does some
kind of conversion / degrading (look closely and you'll see compression and posterizing artifacts). I thought it
was a bad BD / player, but I've seen it with other players in stores as well. I don't think there's a player made
for the US marker that actually faithfully plays a BD.

CAP === 'updated'

Re: dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Or America.

Hey...where did those black people come from ? And where did all the Indians go ?

Re: dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Which brings up an excellent point. Why do they get to ban one DVD backup tool and leave the rest alone?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

Unfortunately, there persists this stubborn subset of morons in society that continue to believe that mental diseases are imaginary, so people with autism or clinical depression must be "faking it", that they just have to "toughen up" or some shit like that.

Public perception of mental illness is just so very fucked up.

Eg People might recall that there was a time when homosexuality was regarded as a mental illness. Nowadays we are 'enlightened' and homosexuality isn't generally regarded as a mental illness. No, these days people who "don't like homosexuality" are regarded as having a mental illness; there is a widespread belief that 'homophobia' is a real thing and that 'homophobes' really are phobic. Hey, if that WERE the case then these 'homophobes' should be given understanding and compassion, right? Because they are ill. But no, the LBGT community demand they be treated like criminals... Shoe is on the other foot, kind of thing.

The world of the mental is such a huge fucking mystery to people, anything concerning the mental world just gets shrouded in so much mythology and misunderstanding and sheer lies, its a wonder we as a society can actually do anything positive at all with it.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty sure Slashdot has just turned into a gamer gate festival of hate. There is barely an ounce of compassion left here.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Bingo! When I was a kid there was no such thing as autism because parents didn't put up with tantrums or misbehaving. Sorry if that offends you, but the reason there are so many assholes now is because parents these days don't give a fuck about raising a well balanced individual.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[phorm]

Well I'm fairly sure that I'm a *hell* of a lot older than his kid, and personally *I* don't want to sit through 10 minutes of advertisements for crap that I don't want just to watch a DVD I bought and paid for. In some cases the ads are actually for the f'ing movie I'm about to watch (albeit in a different format) and show spoilers!

There are some things worth waiting for, and worth waiting through. Shit like DRM-enforced unskippable ads are *NOT* in that list. One of the high points of DVD was supposed to be "no rewinding"... but you pretty much lose the point of that if it still takes 10 minutes of crap to get to the actual content.

Re: dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember this post when you have a kid with autism.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you thought about just pirating it and having your kid watch the ad-free files? This solves everyone's problems. They don't have to worry about you watching DVDs wrong (because you won't be buying the DVD at all), your son gets the easiest-possible way to watch movies, and you stop funding douchebags whose sole function is to make the world a more difficult place. Everyone wins.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[PCM2]

I'm not autistic and I don't want to watch all those ads either. Who does?

How about those auto-play ads on Blu-Ray discs that do nothing but tell you how great Blu-Ray discs are ... as in, not any specific titles, but the format itself. Uh ... guys? Hello?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Locke2005]

Simple explanation: borderline autistic men and women have been gathered together in the Silicon Valley to work on tech projects, and they are now having sex and breeding. Get the autistic predisposition gene from both parents, and you tend to be much more autistic. Like most syndromes, it is a continuum, and only truly considered "autism" when it becomes bad enough to be disabling. Minor autism is actually an _advantage_ in writing software, as is minor OCD. I think I just have the OCD trait, Unfortunately, I appear to have passed it on to my daughter.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

People might recall that there was a time when homosexuality was regarded as a mental illness

Yes, there was.

No, these days people who "don't like homosexuality" are regarded as having a mental illness

No, they aren't.

Some people might regard them as dicks. But if you're claiming that most people who dislike homosexuals are actually considered "mentally ill" for that reason, then you're talking out of your backside.

there is a widespread belief that 'homophobia' is a real thing and that 'homophobes' really are phobic. Hey, if that WERE the case then these 'homophobes' should be given understanding and compassion, right? Because they are ill.

No, you're selectively (and intentionally) imposing your own over-literal interpretation of the word "homophobia"- as if it was what everyone meant by the word- because it suits the flow of your argument.

I appreciate that the persecuted-turned-hypocritical-persecutors narrative suits your rationalisation of a sense of victimhood (stemming from the fact it's not as socially acceptable to be a bigot in this respect as it used to be).

However, when you need to selectively interpret the general meaning of words and twist the facts to suit that argument, it's rather obvious nonsense.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Kjella]

Eg People might recall that there was a time when homosexuality was regarded as a mental illness. Nowadays we are 'enlightened' and homosexuality isn't generally regarded as a mental illness. No, these days people who "don't like homosexuality" are regarded as having a mental illness; there is a widespread belief that 'homophobia' is a real thing and that 'homophobes' really are phobic. Hey, if that WERE the case then these 'homophobes' should be given understanding and compassion, right? Because they are ill. But no, the LBGT community demand they be treated like criminals... Shoe is on the other foot, kind of thing.

I'm pretty sure that if people actually saw it as a mental illness, they wouldn't make a big stink about it. It's not like anybody thinks you'll become autistic, schizophrenic or psychotic by hanging around people that are autistic, schizophrenic or psychotic. Homophobes act like it's some kind of contagious disease you can catch by being around gay people. Or that people have a wicked part of their soul prone to sin and gays are those that have joined the dark side. Where else but religion can you find a group that think you should burn in hell for eternity without being designated a hate group?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[DNS-and-BIND]

...said no one ever.

Seriously, you've invented a very specific kind of fake person for your argument.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

How is homophobia not a real thing?

I don't hate gays, I have friends that are gay, intellectually the concept doesn't bother me, but when I see something gay like two guys kissing or a transexual, I feel an automatic disgust and cringe. That is not something I have any more control over than when I eat certain foods and they make me feel sick like smoked chicken.

I can see why, if someone less self critical and contemplating had the same natural involuntary reaction,they would conclude that homosexuality is unnatural and evil and go off to join the bible thumping brigade.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree.

The biggest problem is with the losers who ARE faking it in order to steal money/acquire drugs from the programs that are supporting the people who actually have it.

I've long believed that the Universe would be a better place if those who were clueless would get a clue, and those that needed help could get help without having to deal with the clueless.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[CCarrot]

...said no one ever.

Seriously, you've invented a very specific kind of fake person for your argument.

Which part? The ones who claim mental diseases aren't real, or the ones who call the city and report stores for not being wheelchair accessible?

I have personally witnessed both behaviors from the same person, and more than once (i.e., different people on different occasions). I don't think the hypocrisy of their world view even registers with them...maybe it's not terribly 'often', but it is ironic (and somewhat amusing) when it happens.

Quick exercise for you: Next time someone starts spouting off about how people shouldn't be diagnosed for (and apparently more importantly, get sick time off to deal with) depression or related illnesses, try asking them how they feel about wheelchair ramps, and whether *every* business should be required to install them. Or if not every business, then which ones have to and which don't? Then grab the popcorn and watch the high-wire act begin.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[bored]

Yah, disney fastplay, does a great job of teaching kids about doublespeak.

http://www.ew.com/article/2007...

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

there is a widespread belief that 'homophobia' is a real thing and that 'homophobes' really are phobic. Hey, if that WERE the case then these 'homophobes' should be given understanding and compassion, right? Because they are ill.

No, you're selectively (and intentionally) imposing your own over-literal interpretation of the word "homophobia"- as if it was what everyone meant by the word- because it suits the flow of your argument.

I appreciate that the persecuted-turned-hypocritical-persecutors narrative suits your rationalisation of a sense of victimhood (stemming from the fact it's not as socially acceptable to be a bigot in this respect as it used to be).

However, when you need to selectively interpret the general meaning of words and twist the facts to suit that argument, it's rather obvious nonsense.

You aren't getting my point. I'm simply illustrating how fucked up peoples perceptions of mental states are. To use the suffix 'phobia' in 'homophobia' shows a complete lack of understanding about the mental condition 'phobia'.

Its a bit like gamers etc who use the term 'rape' not getting that rape isn't something to be taken lightly. They just don't get it.

Same with people who refer to 'homophobes'. Do they even know what phobia is? Do they think a phobia is simple fear? Or are they just using the term 'phobia' as a perjorative? Either is wrong. You shouldn't use terms like phobia or rape or cancer in the pejorative, its offensive and inappropriate.

If homophobia is a real phobia it should be treated as an illness. If homophobia is not a real phobia then this term should not be used at all. But people don't understand what phobia is AT ALL; they don't understand mental states or illnesses AT ALL.

Get it now?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

You aren't getting my point. I'm simply illustrating how fucked up peoples perceptions of mental states are. To use the suffix 'phobia' in 'homophobia' shows a complete lack of understanding about the mental condition 'phobia'.

Its a bit like gamers etc who use the term 'rape' not getting that rape isn't something to be taken lightly. They just don't get it.

Same with people who refer to 'homophobes'. Do they even know what phobia is? Do they think a phobia is simple fear? Or are they just using the term 'phobia' as a perjorative? Either is wrong. You shouldn't use terms like phobia or rape or cancer in the pejorative, its offensive and inappropriate.

If homophobia is a real phobia it should be treated as an illness. If homophobia is not a real phobia then this term should not be used at all. But people don't understand what phobia is AT ALL; they don't understand mental states or illnesses AT ALL.

Get it now?

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[SydShamino]

The parents react as if they are meeting the definition of autistic, why would the children be any different? Its not genetic, its environmental in these cases.

Autistic parents having autistic children is pretty much the goddamn definition of genetic, dumbass.

That's not what he meant. He's describing neurotic parents having neurotic children, and assuming that sufficient neuroses are indistinguishable from autism.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[BronsCon]

it therefore follows that no children are autistic.

Uhm, I think you've perhaps not read BitZtream's entire post. If you'd made it just past the half-way point, you'd have read the following:

YES, there are children with real social issues, but thats a small percentage of the ones diagnosed as such.

And he's spot on about the vast majority of "autistic" kids, as well as the actual autistic kids.

Proof? I happen to know a couple, serial foster parents, who take in diagnosed autistic children as they enter the family services (family court) system, until they find a permanent adoptive home of reach legal age and become wards of the state. Last I'd heard, they'd fostered over 15 "diagnosed autistic" kids and, of those, 12 diagnoses were reversed within a year of them taking custody and imparting some structure, guidance, and (gentle) discipline into their lives. Now, these are kids the state gave them custody of with the explicit direction that, because they had a diagnosed mental condition, they must visit a psychotherapist at least once per month for the duration of their custody; if the reversal of a prior diagnosis was incorrect, there are 12 opportunities per year for the diagnosis to be re-applied. And it's the state providing mental health services as the children are technically wards of the state; it's not one doctor trying to save his reputation, it's whoever's available at the clinic the day of the appointment.

I don't have documentation because, on top of being private medical records, it's tied up in the family services system and I'm not directly involved so I can't get my hands on that; you can take my word for it or not, doesn't really matter to me. If you do take me on my word, though, that's an 80% false positive rate, which is pretty much in line with BitZtream's comment.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[KiloByte]

You can buy the DVD, paying the MAFIAA and letting them use your money for evil, then you commit a crime by ripping the DVD. Or, you could just obtain a non-DRM copy from captain Anakata. I'd say the latter option is strictly better.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[piojo]

It sounds like you're just really good at labeling people as autistic. I'm surprised your numbers aren't higher.

Besides, that doesn't sound like autism, though it was admittedly a very brief description.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[TheRaven64]

It's even better when those are on DVDs, telling you about the crystal clear picture and sound quality that you get on BluRay, while showing you the picture and sound from a DVD. I always get to the end of those thinking 'DVD quality is pretty good. What was that other thing you were talking about and why should I care?'

Re: dvd is useful - please fight

[TheRaven64]

Given that it's AACS, I imagine that it's because they're also backing up BluRay. I have a BD burner in a FreeBSD box that I bought for backups (and never actually used, but that's a different story - it was only marginally more expensive than a DVD drive), so when I received a BluRay disk for Christmas I thought that I'd be able to play it. Apparently not - it used to be possible with VLC but they changed something in the encryption and now it isn't. There is no open source software that can play BDs reliably (there's a Linux thing that sends some SCSI commands directly to the drive from userspace and might work, or might brick your drive) and only a couple of commercial programs that can copy them.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[TheRaven64]

It sounds like you've hit the stuff that they put in to plug the analogue hole. If you don't have DRM-compatible everything on the display path (drivers, graphics card, cable, monitor) then it downgrade the quality to SD. This also applies for VGA and composite output. Lots of early adopters were pissed off by this after buying expensive HD TVs with composite input and then discovering that they couldn't see HD content from BluRay without buying a new TV (or a dubiously legal convertor box).

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[xrobertcmx]

Have you even met real autistic children? I am talking about the ones who break furniture due to rocking back and forth, that have word perfect recall of every conversation you ever had with them but can not tolerate the slightest change in routine. They do tend to lash out and it is not easily controlled. I can see removing adverts for them. Some can function and hold down simple jobs, others will eventually need to be institutionalized. I have one of each in my family.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[xrobertcmx]

The rise in numbers has a lot of associated factors, one is people simply having children later in life. Also, it is frequently not diagnosed until the age of 2. Some markers can be identified earlier, even in pregnancy, but most of the time it is later. This is part of what drove the anti-vax movement. Couples over 40 need to rethink that "Let's go have Kids" moment. The risk is through the roof.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Sebby]

You're obviously the nut job, buddy.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

Press fastforward or skip. Still works on every DVD and BluRay I've bought recent.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[driblio]

Homophobia is a word. It does not mean fear of gay people. Are hydrophobic coatings afraid of water? No. http://www.grammarphobia.com/b...

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

Homophobia is a word. It does not mean fear of gay people. Are hydrophobic coatings afraid of water? No.

http://www.grammarphobia.com/b...

Still not getting it...

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Dogtanian]

How is homophobia not a real thing?

I didn't claim that "homophobia wasn't a real thing".

Are you claiming that you're considered "mentally ill" and in need of treatment in the same way that homosexuals once were as a result of your feelings? If not, then that's the point that was being made.

(Disclaimer; the comment you're replying to was mine- I meant to post it while I was logged in).

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Dogtanian]

Okay. Then my point partly aligns (and partly doesn't) with yours- that the "phobia" in "homophobia" *isn't* being used in the medical sense, but as a term meaning more general fear or revulsion. For that reason, it's inaccurate to suggest that "homophobes" have ever- for the most part- been considered mentally ill.

Thus while changing attitudes towards homosexuals- who once *were* considered mentally ill- says something about changing attitudes towards mental illness itself, modern use the term "homophobe" says very little. One might argue (as you apparently do) that it's misuse of a medical term, but it's precisely because that term *is* being misused that it says nothing about mental illness.

(Disclaimer; the comment you're replying to was mine- I meant to post it while I was logged in).

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[RockDoctor]

Not wanting to watch adverts makes your child a terrorist. The SWAT team will be along shortly to take the little communist away to a re-education camp.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[thegarbz]

Nobody will tolerate that shit ... nobody.

And hence sufferers of extreme cases qualify for disability allowances. Because you know ... autism is actually a thing and not just a case of a badly behaved kid with a bad upbringing.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

Okay. Then my point partly aligns (and partly doesn't) with yours- that the "phobia" in "homophobia" *isn't* being used in the medical sense, but as a term meaning more general fear or revulsion. For that reason, it's inaccurate to suggest that "homophobes" have ever- for the most part- been considered mentally ill.
 

Indeed. The lack of understanding of the nature of mental states is so bad that many people actually believe that a phobic person is actually just afraid of something. They might even see a phobic persons response to the object of their phobia and think that they are overdoing it. They don't get that phobia is way way more than just being afraid of something, that it can be a debilitating condition.

Hence, to many people, it seems totally reasonable to label someone who dislikes homosexuals as 'homophobic' without grasping the nature of the phenomenon that they are referring to.

This dilutes the public perception of phobia even more. It devalues the term and belittles the people who suffer from genuine phobias. Just as a gamer saying "Dude you got totally raped!" dilutes and belittles the term 'rape'.

Its not that the modern use of the term 'homophobe' says anything about mental illness; its that it says something about lack of awareness of mental illness.

(disclaimer: I'm not phobic, in fact I may have a 'fear deficit disorder').

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

So congratulations there snarky ... you've shown us you're nothing more than a completely ignorant, smug asshole who has no fucking clue when to shut his stupid mouth

Remind you of anything? (and no, I'm not the same person you replied to there.)
Next time I have mod points, your ass is mine, bitch!

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Blaskowicz]

I wonder that if you get an imported european DVD, maybe the ads aren't unskippable? I don't remember such ads on DVD but that was 10 years ago and over.

Alternatively I wonder why a DVD player feels it has to obey "unskippable" directives.. Region coding, I know every player ended up ignoring except maybe in the US where you found the "regulatory" pressure to honor it.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[driblio]

No one except you is using the word phobia to talk about disliking gays. If you don't get it, that's fine, everyone else knows what the perfectly cromulant word means.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[vandamme]

Well, I watch the Super Bowl ads and shut it off during the game....

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[myowntrueself]

No one except you is using the word phobia to talk about disliking gays. If you don't get it, that's fine, everyone else knows what the perfectly cromulant word means.

And no one but you is getting butthurt over it.

'homophobia' includes 'phobia', show some respect for people with genuine mental issues. See what I mean? You are part of the problem that was originally described in the post I responded to; lack of comprehension of actual mental health issues. You probably think that people suffering severe depression are just sad.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[driblio]

No, I just know that homophobia is not a phobia. Simple really.

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[Anonymous Coward]

no it means fear of or aversion to men

Re:dvd is useful - please fight

[phorm]

"Alternatively I wonder why a DVD player feels it has to obey "unskippable" directives"

Actually, the funny thing is that most brand-name players will obey the no-skip directive, but the cheaper models actually didn't bother.

Hmmm

[MitchDev]

Shouldn't the FBI and NSA be arrested for trying to circumvent the encryption on iPhones?

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

The DMCA has allowances for law enforcement purposes.

Re:Hmmm

[kimvette]

it also has allowances for interoperability, which ripping for use on a tablet or phone or home media server quite obviously is.

Re:Hmmm

[suutar]

unfortunately, the reverse engineering clause is about programs, not data. Ripping for use on a different platform is more on the fair use side, except that in the DeCSS case the judge decided that if Congress had meant fair use to apply to that they'd have said so. Legislation has been proposed to address that; I'm sure the RIAA has opposed it vehemently, and that their opposition is why such legislation hasn't passed. *sigh*

Re:Hmmm

[SuricouRaven]

It wouldn't matter anyway. Even if you accept the ripping is fair use, distribution of the tools to do the ripping is still illegal. It's one of those ugly legal contradictions where you technically have a the right to do something, but have no legal means of exercising it.

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

It's one of those ugly legal contradictions where you technically have a the right to do something, but have no legal means of exercising it.

And hence why DVDFab and others say: "Fuck it, do it anyway."

If you have the right to have possession of something, the act of procurement should be automatically legal, because you are legally permitted to have it. That there is such fuckery with the current laws is the sole result of corrupt politicians and corporate lobbyists who are out to make a buck. As such normal people simply ignore the laws and do what they want. They have lost all justification for the law, and refuse to abide by it to their determent. To those people I say: "You don't ask, and I won't tell."

Re:Hmmm

[HiThere]

Yes, they should. But they helped write the law, so they can't be.

Re:Hmmm

[TheRaven64]

Next time you talk to an elected representative, point out that Apple had a DVD ripping feature in iTunes ready to go a decade ago, but never shipped it because the CSS license didn't allow ripping and the DMCA prevented them from doing it anyway. Point out that we'd have had the ability to rip DVDs to play on mobile devices just as easily as we do for CDs for years if not for legislation that exists solely to harm the economy as a whole to protect a fairly small segment of it.

Re:Hmmm

[MitchDev]

Long overdue for American Revolution 2.0 anyway....

When the gov't waves the DMCA stick...

[BlytheBowman]

Sit back and think of Russia (servers)

DEC logo

[ArchieBunker]

What does the DEC logo have to do with anything?

Re:DEC logo

[Jonah Hex]

That's what I wondered, and clicking the logo to filter by stories marked with it shows a lot of stories that neither have the logo or a tag of digital, bug perhaps?

Re:DEC logo

[Qzukk]

Somewhere along the long line of people who have owned and operated slashdot, the site administration has lost all of the people who had any idea what DEC was. Since it has the word "digital" in it, the current editors assume the icon can go with anything digital, like Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Re:DEC logo

[Jonah Hex]

The probably think Wang Laboratories is/was a penis enhancement company. :P

Re:DEC logo

[UnknownSoldier]

What, you expect the /. editors to do their job?

LOL

That's funny.

Re:DEC logo

[Koen Lefever]

the site administration has lost all of the people who had any idea what DEC was.

The good thing about all this is that nobody gets confused between DEC and DR any more.

Re:DEC logo

[TheGratefulNet]

that's just fucking sad.

Digital was part of computer history and if you are ANY kind of computer science person, not knowing what DEC was means you are not really educated. it was too important a company to have not known about.

Re:DEC logo

[Anonymous Coward]

The probably think Wang Laboratories is/was a penis enhancement company. :P

It's not? Dammit. It should be.

Wonder if AACS has been knocking on all their door

[ryanmetcalf]

Looks like I can trip, fall, and run into a huge pile of options besides DVDFab
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Is it just me or

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the government write laws that screws us the consumer and interpret those laws in their favor all the time. IE when the FBI wants to decrypt something they are not violating any laws, but when I do I am violating the DMCA. When they encrypt something they are protecting their content. When I do I am a terrorist. When big companies want something they pay their lobbyist to pass a law in their favor. When I want something I am a pirate and a hacker because I want to be able to fast forward and not swatch ads, or copy my video to where I want to watch it, and since I can't afford a lobbyist I am a criminal because the law is not in my favor.

I Think it is time for an armed revolution to take this country back from the cronies that are running it.

Re:Is it just me or

[Anonymous Coward]

I Think it is time for an armed revolution

No you don't. You just want strangers on the Internet to think you do.

Re: Is it just me or

[Anonymous Coward]

As you say that Americans are still buying guns and not hunting with them.

Re:Is it just me or

[Zak3056]

I Think it is time for an armed revolution

No you don't. You just want strangers on the Internet to think you do.

I agree with your assessment. I'm a firm believer in the 2nd amendment, but I'm pretty horrified when someone suggests we need it due to something as trivial as copyright law. Anybody advocating for an armed revolution should think long and hard about the last time we did that, and at modern examples. The outcome would be catastrophic (even if (or maybe especially if) "the people" "won"), and one need look no further than somewhere like Syria to see the template for their new life.

That's not to say I advocate the relative comfort of slavery over a just war of independence, but there is a reason "the cartridge box" is listed last of the four boxes of liberty. All other options MUST be exhausted first.

Re:Is it just me or

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, this is the government that you voted for (or approved by not voting against them). And they didn't just enact the crazy laws; they went term after term (seriously, aren't we literally up to about ten Congressional terms since DMCA?) without repealing this nonsense. So it's not like anybody cares enough to vote against the The Republicrats. And aren't you part of the anybody who could have cared?

You're getting the government that you deserve. That's the curse of democracy: you're responsible.

Yeah, me too. Fuck us all.

I Think it is time for an armed revolution to take this country back from the cronies that are running it.

Excuse me, but it goes like this: 1) soap box, 2) ballot box, 3) ammo box.

You are trying to skip over step 2. Why would anyone trust you or join you?

Re: Is it just me or

[Anonymous Coward]

As you say that, Americans are still registering to vote and then showing up and supporting the parties that gave us these silly laws. Or not showing up at all. (But you know what they're not doing? Voting against Republicrats!)

1) Soap box, 2) ballot box, 3) ammo box.

People who are too chickenshit to be bothered with step 2, sure as hell aren't going to take all the risks involved with step 3.

I know a "gun nut." You know what is going on with this guy? He treats them like really cool toys. Because that's what they are. Guns are one of the circuses in today's "bread and circuses."

They should accept bitcoins

[Anonymous Coward]

and thus circumventing US sales restrictions.

Re:They should accept bitcoins

[jedidiah]

They could also liberate the whole thing and let the cat completely out of the bag. Scorch the earth behind them as they retreat.

Good

[Anonymous Coward]

"DVDFab Has Ignored Court's Shut Down Order, AACS Says "

Bravo to them.

Good luck with that

[Sycraft-fu]

DVDFab is made by a Chinese company and you know just how much of a fuck China gives about this.

Re:Good luck with that

[bev_tech_rob]

DVDFab is made by a Chinese company and you know just how much of a fuck China gives about this.

Exactly.....zero....

Re:Good luck with that

[The Grim Reefer]

DVDFab is made by a Chinese company and you know just how much of a fuck China gives about this.

I believe that can be answered in a song.

Re:Good luck with that

[Kernel Kurtz]

If they are not an American company, they should absolutely ignore US courts and US laws.

They are not the world police though they seem too clueless to know that. Suck it up.

Re:Good luck with that

[Cley Faye]

And for once, I'm happy about it. What's the point of fighting a software that requires the actual disc to be bought to work? Does the publishers really want people to go for the "convenient and cheap" way so bad?
The power these mobs^W associations have in their own countries is bad enough for the consumers, let's not move them to the international level.

Re:Good luck with that

[Holi]

Holy crap that sucks. A talent-less hack getting my by flaunting her ass.
I'm sure China is more like this.

Re:Good luck with that

[Harlequin80]

Exactly AACS's argument is that because of the injunction DVDfab should be actively blocking US ip addresses. I guess when you live in a world where everything you do is geoblocked you can't see any other solution.

Re:Good luck with that

[The Grim Reefer]

Holy crap that sucks. A talent-less hack getting my by flaunting her ass.

Agreed. But sadly she has had 8 number one singles on the billboard dance club charts. It doesn't say much for peoples taste in music these days.

Re:Good luck with that

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF did I watch? Is this the new Rick?

dec logo?

[ciscon]

why is the dec logo being used for everything 'digital' now, did i miss something?

US courts over-reach?

[ukoda]

The Slashdot summary and the article both fail to mention what country DVDFab is in, but the linked domain implies they are in China. So what was the point of the American court telling them what to do? If the AACS want to shut them down they should be applying Chinese laws in a Chinese court, anything else is just theatrics.

Once again only hurts paying customers

[Anonymous Coward]

The scene will always have access to dvd & bluray ripping software; it's their raison d'etre. Whether they write their own or use a third party one is immaterial, they won't stop until disks are entirely obsolete.

Customers, on the other hand, want to be able to rip their disk so they can watch it on a mobile device, stream it over their network or simply have a large movie collection without having to find somewhere to store hundreds of fragile plastic drinks coasters (whose dye starts breaking down after several years potentially rendering them useless).

Once you start making ripping a disk harder than finding an 'illegal' download of the movie then people will simply drop buying the (now useless) disk in favor of a download which can be format shifted, streamed and stored far more easily.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[squiggleslash]

It's taken Hollywood a long time, but they are actually answering this demand right now. Being able to rip DVDs and BDs is still necessary for (many) older titles, but in general if you want a version of a movie that you can access from a menu on your TV, or download onto a tablet for offline viewing, that's possible with virtually all new releases and probably all movies released or rereleased in the last 3-5 years, and many others.

Before the inevitable complaints, I'm not saying what they're offering is perfect, or that it's not overpriced or anything like that, but the argument "They're ignoring the market by not allowing ${ILLEGALTOOL} to provide ${LEGITIMATESERVICE}" is weakening. Support for non-mainstream platforms and the right to a back-up are still elusive, but (limited) format shifting and the video juke box is becoming a thing you can do legally.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[swb]

The problem is what people want is a portable version that can be played on any device.

A great example is a TV series. It's conceivable I might want to watch a given episode on any of 5 different devices in my house. No one download method works for all of them. And in some cases, I may want to downsample HD content to put on a physical DVD.

I want the damn content in unencrypted format and not locked to a specific hardware platform or service.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[wonkey_monkey]

Whether they write their own or use a third party one is immaterial, they won't stop until disks are entirely obsolete.

Why would they stop when disks are obsolete?

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[Cley Faye]

Granted, I gave up on these "services", but last time I checked the movies available from publisher's offers were seriously compressed, had DRM making them more or less useless on most devices I use, and lacked most of the content I wanted to see (bonus, obviously, but in some case the original audio track was not available... wtf).
On the other hand, I plop a disc in my computer, click a button, wait an hour and *everything* is available within a click, with no forced trailers, no "stealin is bad" disclaimer, no menu that takes longer to operate than the actual movie, etc. But the main thing: I buy the damn disc, and I have to get a chinese software to use said disc in an effective way. And that's more efficient than any online service I've seen so far.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[Anonymous Coward]

This is all fine and dandy. Except for people like me who have sunk a sizable amount of money into my existing media (2k+ discs). I am not paying them *again* for the same movie.

Also remember the same company that just shut down Disney Infinity is part of the AACS. So the *second* it is not economically viable they will turn off their servers and your movies are 'gone'.

Re: Once again only hurts paying customers

[Anonymous Coward]

Eat a dick, those aren't obsolete.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[Anonymous Coward]

I pay significantly more for usenet+scene access each month than I would for streaming service. The reason I don't pay for the streaming service is because none of them *work*. I signed up for netflix, it was a slideshow horror show. No streaming video, just a sequence of still pictures at about 15fps, with major tearing. On the same exact hardware I can watch full 1080p H.264 off usenet in mpv, or MPC-HC, with perfect framesync and no tearing. I tried ripping the stream from Netflix, and that made the tearing and slideshow go away, but the codec is so low-bitrate that it was still unwatchable.

If I'm going to pay for streaming service, it better be BETTER than cable, it ought to be better than Bluray. I have a 200Mbit/s connection, but the Netflix streams at max quality were only 1.5Mbit/s. If you know where to look and are prepared to pay, you can get 30Mbit/s pre-broadcast MPEG2 4:2:2. I don't know why I can't just pay someone legally $50/month to access an HTTP server where I can download what I'm downloading now from illegal pay sites and Usenet. No DRM, no put-through-a-blender shitcodec, No captive portal which can't play video because "silverlight". Just watermark the files and provide them over HTTP or FTP. Make it easier than Usenet, because right now Usenet is anything but easy, and I would just love to have an FTP server that I can just mount with ftpfs, and not have to predownload things before I can watch them.

Note, I only download TV shows, mostly foreign ones which are not available in my region Netflix, because if I want to watch a movie I just buy it on bluray. I would stream movies if the above service was available legally, but again, the legal streaming movie scene is like opening your mouth and being shat on. Computer networks are faster than Bluray, the fucking product they offer over them should therefore be better, not "a hell of a lot worse, and mostly unwatchable".

I'd rather watch a DVD than Netflix. Much higher quality.

Re:Once again only hurts paying customers

[Chelloveck]

in some case the original audio track was not available... wtf

Betcha the studio paid for distribution rights to the soundtrack or incidental music for theater and DVD use, but not for streaming use.

Correct action

[Anonymous Coward]

Near as I can tell DVDFab ignored the judgement as they ignored the court date. DVDFab isn't a US company so the US courts don't have authority.

It seems they made an effort to regroup while moving servers and domains outside the US prior to re-opening sell offers.

Re:Correct action

[Anonymous Coward]

Near as I can tell DVDFab ignored the judgement as they ignored the court date. DVDFab isn't a US company so the US courts don't have authority.

It seems they made an effort to regroup while moving servers and domains outside the US prior to re-opening sell offers.

The AACS seized their .com domain awhile back. But the .cn domain works just fine.

DVDFab could make $$Millions

[Blinkin1200]

DVDFab should add an option to decrypt iPhones, or images of iPhones. It doesn't really have to work, just a checkbox or menu entry where the user could select an iPhone or iPhone image.

I think law enforcement in the USA would be lined up with wheelbarrows of cash to get the software. Wheelbarrows of Bitcoin may be safer if you are going to take the money and run.

They will NEVER

[Anonymous Coward]

They will NEVER stop dvdFAP!

Only hurting legit sales

[Deathlok's Bear]

Anyone who wants to crack dvd/bluray encryption for piracy is going to do it with or without commercial programs like dvdfab.

The only reason I still buy movies on disc is so I can rip them to my media server and *store* the physical media.
No needing to go dig up discs, worry about scratches, etc. If I want to take a movie with me, I just transcode it to my phone.

Not only is it more convenient, but it gets around a lot of licensing issues with streaming media where companies let the license lapse and it becomes unavailable online.

As a consumer, I want to consume my media when and how I want. Nuts to anyone who wants to restrict my rights to watch something I've already paid for.

So, as a legal user of dvdfab, I hope they keep doing what they're doing.

Good Advertising

[TechyImmigrant]

I'm considering going and buying a copy now.

Re:Good Advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of credit card processors have them blocked. A few weeks back I attempted to purchase it because the consensus among friends is it's the best to convert my home library to my media server. Couldn't process a payment and my cards all got flagged. Really sucked because I had to use inferior software that doesn't work on everything.

Re:Good Advertising

[The-Ixian]

Agreed.

Though, really, this is one of the reasons that I don't own a single DVD or Blueray disc.

If I really want to watch something I will rent it from Redbox for $1.50, thanks.

Re:Good Advertising

[phantomfive]

A few weeks back I attempted to purchase it because the consensus among friends is it's the best to convert my home library to my media server.

For ripping and converting video, I've found that MKV + Handbrake works really nicely, and it's free.
http://www.makemkv.com/
I wish more people knew about it instead of those stupid clones that come up better in search results and ask for money.

Re:Good Advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

I am pretty sure Handbrake does not decrypt.

Re:Good Advertising

[TechyImmigrant]

Most of the DVDs I have are music and are not from the USA, where I live. So region coding is a barrier to my legitimate use of persons DVD imports protected under the Berne Convention.

Re:Good Advertising

[lgw]

Is MakeMKV the perma-Beta one you have to install every 30 days? It seems to run into more discs that it doesn't know how to decrypt than the paid guys. I had great success with AnyDVD for years, though I don't know yet about the new "Red Fox" (they claim to be the same team, just ignoring previous lifetime subscriptions are making people pay again, which is a bit shitty, but whatever.)

Re:Good Advertising

[phantomfive]

Yeah, and Handbrake can skip while it's ripping, too. Furthermore it doesn't handle the "Disney" style drm.
That's why I suggest ripping with MKV, then converting to your desired format with Handbrake.

Re:Good Advertising

[Locke2005]

The need to accept bitcoin, don't they?

Re:Good Advertising

[UnknownSoldier]

>> I've found that MKV + Handbrake.
> I am pretty sure Handbrake does not decrypt.

Reading. You might want to try it sometime. :-)

Re:Good Advertising

[eWarz]

I've never had that issue, can you let me know what titles I should be concerned about? Recently ripped SWTFO for example.

Re:Good Advertising

[djbckr]

Is MakeMKV the perma-Beta one you have to install every 30 days?

Yes, that's the one. I've never really had a problem with it, and I like it so much I bought it. The developer could use the support (I'm pretty sure it's just one guy working on it - could be wrong tho)

Re:Good Advertising

[thegarbz]

Is MakeMKV the perma-Beta one you have to install every 30 days?

I had great success with AnyDVD for years

Are you implying you didn't need to get an update to AnyDVD every time a new movie came out? I certainly remember I did. That's the joyful world of AACS.

Re:Good Advertising

[lgw]

Wait, you can pay for it now? Wow, that wasn't the case when I bought AnyDVD. I thought they were slipping under the radar thanks to not taking money (unlike AnyDVD and DVDFab, who face serious lawfare opposition).

Re:Good Advertising

[lgw]

MakeMKV used to take a long time to catch up after key rotation. Maybe they're doing better now. (BTW, Movie bought retail, Movie from Netflix, and Movie from Redbox all have different keys and different likelihoods of ripping successfully the first week or two).

Re:Good Advertising

[Anonymous Coward]

I have to use MakeMKV-beta now because PowerDVD quit updating its AACS keys for the version of its software that came with the Blu-ray player in my PC, and you can't get a newer version unless you pay PowerDVD more money. Why should I have to shell out $100 every few years just to be able to continue playing blu-ray discs? What a fucking racket.

Stupid question

[Locke2005]

If an overseas company sells DVD decryption software downloaded from an overseas server, how can the AACS force them to comply with a court order issued in the US? Or is that one of the provisions of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership?

Re:Stupid question

[HiThere]

IIUC, China is not a party to the TPP.

The US has no juristiction.

[sg_oneill]

Looking at DVDFabs about pages, it leads to a chinese company called Fengtao Software Inc from the Haidian district in Beijing.

They have no obligation at all to comply with this, because they are not an american company at all.

Test-case

[DrYak]

Why do they get to ban one DVD backup tool and leave the rest alone?

My opinion (note that I'm NOT a lawyer) is that they are testing the water.
See if they can manage this case and set a precedent.
And then use this case as reference form future lawsuits with other DVD backup software developers.
(A little like back then with Napster)

Though, in practice, I think this is going to fail completely. There are way too many DVD backup tools out-there, some developed outside of the jurisdiction of the AACS.

Re:Test-case

[Anonymous Coward]

What the NEXT lawyer drafted agreement should do is state if any injunction or other interferes with cash stream / revenue then the holding nominee company's injunction NOT to market or distribute is rescindedand to take all measures to ensure the intellectual property gets used. A poison pill to open source it if revenue does not accumulate to boot.

In a case like this the US entities can say they took no action and complied with the order/injunction, that triggered a pre-existing contract in another jurisdiction not parties to TPP or similar. Kinda like a living will to ensure predictable leagal actions are frustrated.
Exactly the same as not paying tax like the Panama papers - all legal and above board.

Kind of ironic

[Anonymous Coward]

The people that purchase a software to legitimately take a copy and/or use on other devices than a DVD/BlueRay are being targeted.

The people who are ripping and selling copies probably ripped and copied DVDFab also...

DVDFab doesn't have operations in the US

[Anonymous Coward]

US Law doesn't apply outside of US borders. They can do whatever they want outside the US including completely ignoring a court order that only applies on US soil.

obligatory

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank goodness he's draw attention away from my shirt!
http://i.imgur.com/GzZZSKI.png