Digital Trends
“No two ways about it: Piracy is legally and morally wrong.”
We’ve all heard it a million times. We’ve heard the analogies to walking out of a store with a CD under your jacket, sending software developers straight to the unemployment line or ripping food right out of a poor key grip’s mouth. And for some of us, we’ve even seen people we know ensnared by the law when they finally get caught gorging on free motion pictures and music.
Less than a week after it went on sale, a court has issued an order temporarily requiring RealNetworks to suspend distribution of its DVD-copying product RealDVD. The action comes in response to a lawsuit brought against RealNetworks by the MPAA, alleging RealDVD enables users to bypass the Content Scramble System (CSS) used to protect DVDs from unlicensed copying. RealNetworks maintains that making a copy for personal use is permissible under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and points to Kaleidescape’s successful victory over the MPAA in a case where Kaleidescape hardware enabled users to copy DVDs into a personal library.
It turns out that movie piracy does pay – just not for the pirates, as you might expect. The MPAA’s drawn-out battle with BitTorrent search engine TorrentSpy finally came to a dramatic end this week, with a $111 million dollar judgment against the site.
According to CNET, Los Angeles U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper handed the fine down to TorrentSpy owners Valence Media along with a permanent injunction forcing the site to cease operations (though it voluntarily shuttered its site in March to avoid users further incriminating themselves). The court calculated the fine by adding $30,000 for every one of 3,699 movies and TV shows illegally distributed.
In 2005, the MPAA—the same organization that issued movie ratings—commissioned a study which purported to find that 44 percent of the U.S. film industry’s financial losses came from college students illegally downloading movies via high-speed campus networks. The organization has used the study to apply pressure to universities and other higher education institutions to crack down on access to peer-to-peer file-sharing services, and to pitch legislation (currently before the U.S. House of Representatives) aimed at forcing institutions to take a harder line on file-sharing.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that an 18-month study completed in 2005 by LEK Consulting, LLC has found that lost sales from piracy of DVD movies and downloads totals some $6.1 billion a year, a figure 75 percent higher than previous industry estimates. (The Wall Street Journal is a subscription service, but the site is currently publicly accessible for 10 days.)
“According to the MPAA, California-based Sigma Designs and Taiwan-based MediaTek each have sold DVD-player chips to companies that offer features in their products that aren’t allowed under the general DVD technology license. That act violated the license the chipmakers had to sign to build the DVD chips in the first place, the trade association said.”
The MPAA has taken a proactive step into ensuring that new DVD chip technologies do not infringe on their current processes. RCA’s DVD player which censored adult content has been pulled from store shelves at Wal-Mart due to copy-right infringement according to the MPAA. It will be interesting to see how new technologies evolve in the home video market with the MPAA breathing down everyones back.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) today released the following fact sheet in order to clarify recent misinformation from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) regarding its “modelstate communications security legislation.”
‘Theft of Service’s Bill Fact Sheet
Yesterday the MPAA attempted to defend its model state “theft of services” law with the following “assurances”:
The [model bill] is exclusively about stealing communications services. The legislation only provides for criminal and civil remedies if an individual steals a service offered for a fee, and expands the criminalization of electronic devices and software – beyond already outlawed illegal cable television devices, if such a device was specifically designed, distributed and marketed to steal communications services.
Commenting on continued efforts by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to broaden state laws against communications piracy, Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) Vice President ofTechnology Policy Michael Petricone today expressed concern about broad and ambiguous bills being advanced in 10 state legislatures and called on state leaders to reject MPAA’s approach.
“Consumers’ fair use and home recording rights will be severely threatened if MPAA-backed bills are enacted. The consumer electronics industry supports serious and reasoned efforts to curb digital piracy, but MPAA’s proposed laws would have a serious and negative impact on consumer rights, technological advancement and innovation.
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