DVD Copy Software vs. DMCA and MPAA

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

Noted in  WIRED News Feb. 28, 2003 PT 

Jan. 21, 2003

The seven major Hollywood studios request a ruling that 321 Studios'
products, DVD Copy Plus and DVD X Copy, are illegal under the DMCA.

Setting the scene in DVD drama:  A small software firm takes on big movie
studios over whether home users can make copies

02/27/2003 
By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News 

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/ptech/generalstories/022703ccptechdv
d.9c6f3.html

(requires registration for access)

Friday in a California courtroom, a small St. Louis software company
begins a fight for its life against a phalanx of powerful Hollywood movie
studios.  The outcome could impact our collective digital future.  On one
side is 321 Studios (321studios.com), maker of computer programs that
allow home users to copy DVD movies they own.  On the other is the Motion
Picture Association of America, which charges that 321's software
circumvents copy protection schemes in violation of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act.

...

321 Studios is just as sure that DVDs are no different than VHS tapes.  
"You can make backup copies of any VHS tape you own, but Hollywood is
trying to set a line of demarcation between VHS and everything else and
DVDs," says Ms. Sedlock. "It's trying to say digital media is different
and should be treated differently."  The company's $100 DVD X Copy is the
first product to let users copy an entire DVD movie onto a blank DVD in
any computer DVD-writable drive. Since being released in November, more
than 150,000 copies have been sold at outlets such as CompUSA, Circuit
City and Fry's Electronics.

....

The developers of DVD X Copy also point out that it doesn't break the code
used to protect commercially sold movie discs. Instead, the program grabs
video and audio after it is decrypted by the DVD drive, which means the
DMCA is never in play, 321 Studios attorneys argued.

...

Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of
California will be asked to decide whether 321 Studios should be enjoined
from distributing its software.