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Tag Archive: digital millennium copyright act

DMCA Catches McCain On YouTube

Back in 1998, Senator John McCain voted for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 10 years later he’s a victim of it.
YouTube has pulled ads for the McCain Presidential campaign after Fox News has claimed they illegally use copyrighted material. And that’s sparked a flurry of letters between the McCain campaign and YouTube.

The campaign has asked YouTube to keep the clips online while it’s determined whether the Fox clips constitute fair use – and courts have said that fair use has to be considered by copyright holders. McCain’s people have also suggested that political campaigns should have special protections. Fox has filed a DMCA claim for the clips to be removed.  Read more...

Real Responds To Apple’s ‘Stunned’ Reaction

On Monday, RealNetworks announced a public beta of their Harmony software, a technology that allows consumers to listen to legally downloaded, digitally protected music on 100’s of portable devices, including Apple’s popular iPod. The significance of this announcement is that before Harmony, there was no way of playing, for instance, music downloaded from Real’s Music Store on an iPod.

Apple responded to that news by stating that the company was “stunned that RealNetworks has adopted the tactics and ethics of a hacker to break into the iPod,” and hinted at possible violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  Read more...

Studios Sue Retailer for Piracy

The lawsuit, filed in New York by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Paramount Pictures Corp., marks the first time a movie company has sued a retailer of the forbidden software by 321 Studios Inc.

Other retailers voluntarily halted sales of the software after federal judges in New York and California – at Hollywood’s behest – ordered 321 of suburban St. Louis to stop making and marketing it.

Hollywood studios long have insisted that DVD-copying products violate the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which bars circumvention of anti-piracy measures used to protect DVDs and other technology.  Read more...

Apple Closes ‘Fair Use’ Music Project

The PlayFair project was taken down on April 16 by Sarovar after receiving a cease and desist letter from Apple Computer Corp. The Indian organization Sarovar is a facility for free software creators and provides the same facilities as the Sourceforge project, based in the US, does.

PlayFair allows people to play music on non-Apple authorised hardware, provided an authorised key is available. It removes the Digital Rights Management from a song if the key to playing the song is available.

Playfair was originally hosted at Sourceforge but Apple invoked the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and forced the takedown of the program.  Read more...

New York Court Bans DVD XCOPY

DVD software provider 321 Studios suffered another legal setback Wednesday when a New York judge granted a preliminary injunction barring the company from manufacturing, distributing, or otherwise trafficking in software that allows users to copy DVDs.

U.S. District Judge Richard Owen, in case 1:03-cv-08970-RO, sided with Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox Film in ordering 321 Studios to stop distributing products that violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Motion Picture Association of America says in a statement praising the court decision.

Read the full story at PC World.

Judge delays ruling on DVD copying case

Observers had been hoping that the judge would give definitive answers to challenges to the constitutionality of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

The Act has been cited by trade associations such as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in disputes over copying.

US District Judge Susan Illston did not rule whether DVD copying software was a legitimate method of making back-ups of films purchased by the user, or whether users could make such copies under ‘fair use’ legislation.

Although Judge Illston declined to name a date for when she would deliver a ruling, she did confirm that she was “substantially persuaded” to rule for the trade association.  Read more...

Studios take on DVD copying

Chesterfield, Mo.-based 321 Studios has sold about a half-million copies of its software titles that allow the user to make backup copies of DVD movies to blank DVDs or CDs. Hollywood alleges the company’s software functions in a way that is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, signed into law by Hollywood-friendly former President Clinton.

The DMCA prohibits the circumvention of technological measures put in place by content owners to protect access to copyright works.

The software company says its products merely give consumers fair use of the movies they’ve purchased — backing up expensive copies of children’s movies or copying snippets of films for educational and journalistic use.  Read more...

CEA strongly opposes state piracy laws

“CEA strongly opposes the state piracy laws being promoted by MPAA. If enacted, these measures would have a profound and destructive impact on consumers’ rights to use lawfully acquired content for noncommercial purposes. The proposed laws also would outlaw the manufacturing and use of many existing consumer electronics products and hinder future technological developments.

“These bills are wolves in sheep’s clothing. While Hollywood claims they only impact cable piracy, they are so broad and vague as to criminalize legal products and consumer uses. In essence, these bills replicate the restrictions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) without including any of the DMCA’s protections for consumers.  Read more...

Backup DVD copies legal says EFF

Championing the public’s rights to use and innovate with media, EFF is filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting 321 Studios’ challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). EFF, along with co-signers Public Knowledge and Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, argue that tools such as 321’s DVD X-Copy, which enables a user to make a personal backup copy or excerpt of a DVD, must be lawful because they are necessary to the public’s fair use of digital media.

The movie studios on the other side of the 321 lawsuit claim that DVD X-Copy — and any hardware or software tools that would allow viewers to back up or extract snippets from DVDs — is an unlawful circumvention device.  Read more...

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