EFF: Court Endorses Ban on DVD Copy Technology [321 Studios]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 16:19:31 -0500
From: Seth Finkelstein <sethf () sethf com>
Subject: Fwd - EFF: Court Endorses Ban on DVD Copy Technology [321 Studios]
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>

http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/MGM_v_321Studios/20040220_eff_pr.php

Court Endorses Ban on DVD Copy Technology

Electronic Frontier Foundation Urges Digital Copyright Law Reform

San Francisco - Consumers suffered a setback to their digital rights
today when a California federal court sided with the major motion
picture studios in ruling that a company creating tools people can use
to make backup copies of their DVDs is liable under copyright
law. Citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the court
ordered 321 Studios, creator of DVD backup tools, to stop selling its
DVD Copy Plus and DVD-X COPY products within seven days. 321 Studios
is likely to appeal the ruling.

[Source material at:
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/MGM_v_321Studios/
http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/MGM_v_321Studios/20040219_Order.pdf

Read it and weep, folks. In the Order, every single geek argument is
slammed, and slammed *hard*. In particular:

"This Court finds, as did both the Corley and Elcom courts, that legal
downstream use of the copyrighted material by customers is not a defense
to the software manufacturer's violation of the provisions of - 1201 (b)(1)."
        
Fair Use is no defense to the DMCA tools provision, sayeth that Court.]

--
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  sethf () sethf com  http://sethf.com
Interview: http://grep.law.harvard.edu/article.pl?sid=03/12/16/0526234
Seth Finkelstein's Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/ 

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