3 Count: DVD Interrputed

Jonathan BaileyAugust 13, 2009

2 minutes read

Got any suggestions for the 3 Count. Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: California Court of Appeal reverses Kaleidescape decision; another blow to DVD copying

If you’re in the DVD copying business, might be time to update your resume. It has been a very bad week for your industry in the U.S. Yesterday, a district court barred the sale of RealDVD, saying that it violated the contract that makes Real had signed with the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) by manufacturing a product that would copy DVDs to a hard drive for later playback.

Well, a similar case involving a DVD “jukebox” called Kaleidescape has reached the California court of appeals and generated much the same verdict. In this case, the company wished to produce a set top box that would rip and store DVDs for disc-less playback later. However, the court sided with the DVD CCA, who was also the plaintiff in this case, that the technical specifications were a part of the contract and did require the disk to be present for playback.

The result, though Kaleidescape had won a victory at the lower court, it now appears that its product, as well as RealDVD, is illegal under the contract and the eyes of the law. A very powerful double blow against DVD copying.

2: Justin.tv Placates Copyright Holders With Anti-piracy Tech

Next up today, Justin.tv, the famous livestreaming site, has partnered with Vobile to put in place new copyright protection measures that will filter out copyright infringring videos and, eventually, be able to filter out copyrighted live content, such as sports games.

Justin.tv has wrestled with copyright issues a great deal lately, which had previously instituted a near-instantaneous takedown system for copyright holders. However, Justin.tv hopes that, by being more proactive, they will encourage more business-friendly traffic and may open the doors to better deals with content creators down the road.

3: Foreign porn producers sue SKorean Internet users

Finally today, if you upload pornography in South Korea and earn money from it, you might have a nasty surprise coming to you. A law firm hired to represent more than 50 US and Japanese pornography companies has filed a whopping 10,000 lawsuits in the country and is asking the police to investigate.

According to the official quoted in the story, the companies will seek seek financial damages in addition to police action and plan on targeting 80 South Korean website operators as well. However the current offensive is only aimed at those that gained some kind of financial benefit from the uploading, though some have made over $24,000 per month uploading the allegedly infringing material.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.