Tweet
Well just when everyone though that the Kaleidescape CSS court case was over, and Kaleidescape having won the original case, an appeal has overturned the original ruling and gives victory, albeit perhaps temporary, to the DVD CCA (the DVD Copy Control Association, the body responsible for CSS licensing).
Kaleidescape makes home DVD servers that allows DVDs to be copied over, CSS and all, to the server's hard-drives and then played back via a nifty interface (the digital path is protected so that ripping cannot occur). It's strictly for home theater buffs due to the price of the units, and it's unlikely that someone willing to pay thousands of dollars for a Kaleidescape server then becomes too cheap to pay for the movies.
However, the DVD CCA argues that the license which was granted to Kaleidescape did not allow them to separate the content (and CSS) with the original disc, much like what Real Networks did with its RealDVD software, which also had a setback in court this week.
So once again we have an innovative product that's now been declared illegal, although this time it's more to do with CSS licensing than the DMCA. Copyright holders want to maintain a firm grip on not only whether they are paid for their work, but how the works are distributed, and they are willing to take legal action even if no specific harm has been done to them (theoretical harm is all they need to prove, under the DMCA).
A bad week for innovation, fair use, all around.
More:
Kaleidescape makes home DVD servers that allows DVDs to be copied over, CSS and all, to the server's hard-drives and then played back via a nifty interface (the digital path is protected so that ripping cannot occur). It's strictly for home theater buffs due to the price of the units, and it's unlikely that someone willing to pay thousands of dollars for a Kaleidescape server then becomes too cheap to pay for the movies.
However, the DVD CCA argues that the license which was granted to Kaleidescape did not allow them to separate the content (and CSS) with the original disc, much like what Real Networks did with its RealDVD software, which also had a setback in court this week.
So once again we have an innovative product that's now been declared illegal, although this time it's more to do with CSS licensing than the DMCA. Copyright holders want to maintain a firm grip on not only whether they are paid for their work, but how the works are distributed, and they are willing to take legal action even if no specific harm has been done to them (theoretical harm is all they need to prove, under the DMCA).
A bad week for innovation, fair use, all around.
More:
