Comments on: MPAA vs. RealNetworks: Five reasons why Hollywood will win

In federal court, the tech company had a tough time proving it didn't circumvent copy protections or that a proposed DVD copying box won't lead to mass piracy.

[unknown unknown]

ARccOS and RipGuard do not even use encryption. They just write corrupt data to sectors on the disc and exploit the fact that copying software will try to copy every sector and either include the corruption in the final copy or give up if it can't. Apparently players can be instructed by the disc which sectors can be ignored similar to the way hard drives map out bad sectors.

Can you really call something that appears to exploits lazy coding, copy protection?

http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/arccos.cfm <--AfterDark's explanation, which I paraphrased.

[pentest]

Linux + K3B = A system that makes backups without circumventing encryption.

[frenchfry42]

ARccOS and RipGuard are not something that you "crack"...Both are just intentional errors introduced onto the disc and the content that are not encountered during normal playback - but only during ripping. Basic error handling of the type learned in programming 101 can be used to handle these errors. These errors do NOT prevent copying - they simply slow it down and make ripping take an annoying length of time. The studios claim that this basic error handling and avoidance is a form of cracking, hacking, or circumvention is ridiculous. By that argument, all DVD players could be described as circumventing arccos and ripguard.

[kwilsonjr]

When will these people get it? They fight these fantastic technological advances at every turn. By doing so, they not only hurt themselves, but quash the creativity that makes these advances possible.

MP3 sales are now one of the biggest income streams for the RIAA even though they fought MP3 ripping and downloading at every turn. They STILL have not come out and said it is acceptable use to rip a store bought CD to MP3.

The MPAA is only hurting its members by stifling innovation. If they were representing me, I would be screaming bloody murder because they are wasting millions and millions on litigation that could be better spent on production, and failing to take advantage of technology to increase my earnings.

In other words, I would fire them in a heartbeat.

[LionMage1]

I'm rather disappointed that the author of this article uncritically parroted the positions espoused by the MPAA and the DVD-CCA regarding CSS. As the EFF has rightly pointed out, CSS is not in any way, shape or form a copy protection scheme. The bits can be copied off of any DVD without removing the CSS encryption, and that is still technically copying the contents of the DVD. Some older versions of DVD playback software would happily play back CSS-encrypted content that had been copied to your hard drive (i.e., if someone naively just copied the VIDEO_TS folder from their DVD without using any illegal circumvention software).

What is CSS really? It is a scheme whereby the DVD-CCA can dictate who can or cannot manufacture DVD players, or create DVD playback software. No matter how much money or power you might have (or think you have), if the DVD-CCA or their Hollywood masters don't want you making a DVD player, you will not get a CSS license. This is the primary reason why there is still no legal DVD playback software for Linux in the United States, despite several companies attempting to obtain a license so that Linux users could have legal playback on their desktop and laptop computers running Linux. There's a small but growing market for this, but Hollywood doesn't care. The sad irony is, anyone outside the United States can freely use Linux to watch DVDs without any problems, because the necessary CSS libraries are freely available and legal outside the United States.

In short, Marsha King lied. A balanced article would have mentioned the EFF position (which was raised in other court cases, incidentally, sometimes to a more sympathetic judge).

Oh, and by the way, this article was absolutely rife with errors. To start with, DVD-CCA stands for "DVD Copy Control Assocation," not the "DVD Copy Protection Assocation." Probably a mental slip, but still.

The grammar gaffes are much more annoying. Nouns and articles that don't agree on number, for instance. Or my favorite pet peeve, confusing "its" and "it's." (News flash: its is the possessive of it, and it's is a contraction of "it is.") I expect a bit more from a journalist.

[biffhenerson]

The bottom line is people want something for nothing. They steal. Oh yeah there are about 5 people who make backup copies in case their kids scratch the heck of of them. But there is no need for a backup copy. If a disk wears out or scratches, simply buy a new one. They are disposeable and cheap. Or perhaps return the original to the vendor and they will send you a replacement. If your serious about backup copies to protect your investment, do you make photocopies of all of your books just in case a page gets torn out or you spill your "energy" drink on it?

[groink_hi]

I don't understand the backing up because of scratches issue at all. I was brought up with 8-track tapes, cassette tapes and vinyl albums. People who bought albums never once drew total outrage about albums getting scratched, or cassette tapes or VHS/betamax tapes being chewed up in the player. And, if your comeback to this is that one can copy the album to cassette, very very little people ever did this. The sale of blank cassette tapes was no where near the sales of blank DVDs. This ability to back up DVDs is just a smoke cover to hide the real intent here - and that is the "rent, rip and return." I know of one guy who was laid off from his job, and instead of finding a job, his goal is to rent every DVD NetFlix has to offer, and basically duplicate NetFlix's inventory. Judge Patel probably has a few cousins or friends who do the exact same thing. I can't see RealNetworks winning this.

[Dave-93]

I kinda hope Real loses, just because they're spamming dirtbags.

[rrod182]

The solution IMHO, the studio should let consumers register their movies and supply free lifetime replacements of the DVDs. You send the broken one and get a free replacement. Right now there is no workable solution, if they wont let you copy them, then they should furnish replacements. This really costs them little compared to piracy.

[jmcintire]

I agree with grossj144: the studios should expand their program of offering digital copies along with the discs. My Dark Knight DVD, for example, has a digital copy for Windows Media Player and for iTunes. If customers pay a reasonable premium for the disc with the digital copy, everyone's happy. Rather than losing money from ripping DVDs, Hollywood can actually profit from it! Plus, law-abiding consumers now have a legal copy they can play on their iPhones, store on their hard drives, and play on their computers without having to fear legal retribution. Everyone wins! (except Real Networks, of course ;-))

[darfjono]

DMCA is a joke law and should be struck down by the supreme court.

too bad everyone in our government is in someone's pocket though so fat chance of anything that actually benefits the citizens getting done.

at the end of the day corporate greed wins again.

where's the plane to rapture? andrew ryan had the right idea.

[Altotus]

Just what part of being a politician does not require being re elected? It takes money the sheep called citizens have no real input their weakness and lack of knowledge is well known. It is money that gets you elected the ads work! It works every time time and again. This is How The System Works. A citizen can vote if he understood the issues and IF there is some one that will represent the citizens will but when it comes to reelection who will vote for the citizens representative if the voters only have seen the advertisements of the well healed greed sponsored moneybag representative. Works every time the voters are dupes. It is easy to manipulate public opinion given enough money and time.

[fondy]

"Real's argument was this: if a copy protection isn't effective then it isn't really protecting anything and is not covered by the DMCA"

It's also easy enough for the supermarket cashier to forget to scan that 50 lb bag of dog food you put on the bottom rack of the shopping cart, but I'm pretty sure it's still considered shoplifting to knowingly take it out of the store without paying for it.

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but I recall someone conducted a study into music/movie piracy and discovered that surprisingly, those who suffered most from piracy aren't the artists or studios, but the local and state governments. This makes sense if you think about all of the taxes levied on a CD/DVD. You've got taxes on the manufacturing equipment, employee payroll taxes, taxes on the fuel to carry the product to the stores, sales tax, etc. And since we all know that the seller's tax burden gets passed on to the consumer, just imagine what percentage of the price of a $20 DVD is to cover all of these various taxes? No wonder it was so easy to get the horrendous DMCA passed.

[Altotus]

Not the taxes its the lobbying money that gets things done in Washington Its not the little tax money its the big profits that pay for the things that are needful in Washington Laws cost money its necessary to buy politicians to pass laws..

[Altotus]

When will the people organize a real response to crap laws and demand the reduction of copyright terms to a realistic level like 5 years.