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Big Content Finds Perpetual Access to DRMed Content Laughable

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:54:21 -0500

DRM protection has been a bone of contention between content owners and anti-DRM activists. The latter party’s contentions seem to be becoming quite popular with content providers, with many music download services, including the august iTunes, opting for DRM-free music. However, DRM hasn’t been eliminated as a lot of downloadable content, including streaming/downloadable videos and streaming music, is still fettered by DRM protection.

The Copyright Office is currently deliberating upon allowing fresh exemptions to its rules that forbid DRM cracking – enshrined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Steven Metalitz, a DC-based lawyer, who represents Big Content – a collective term for DRM-loving individual content owners and their organizations like MPAA and RIAA, reckons users should not be allowed to crack DRM protection even if an online store shuts down its authentication servers.

“We reject the view that copyright owners and their licensees are required to provide consumers with perpetual access to creative works. No other product or service providers are held to such lofty standards. No one expects computers or other electronics devices to work properly in perpetuity, and there is no reason that any particular mode of distributing copyrighted works should be required to do so,” he wrote in a missive addressed to the Copyright Office’s top legal advisor.

It is quite unrealistic to expect online stores to perpetually maintain their DRM servers. But it is ludicrous to assume that shutting down of an authentication server or the whole online store is reason enough for the user to surrender his ownership rights.

Image Credit: DRM Converter

MPAA: Making a Single Backup Copy of a DVD is Illegal

Paul Lilly — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 09:39:13 -0500

Underscoring just how out of touch the Motion Picture Association of America is with its consumer base, the MPAA has spoken out regarding a buyer's (lack of) rights in making a single backup copy of a DVD. The comment came in response to a question raised bu U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel, who during the RealDVD case, asked the MPAA if whether or not it believes it's legal for consumers to make backup copies of legally purchased DVDs for personal use.

"Not for the purposes under the DMCA," said Bart Williams, an attorney for the MPAA. "One copy is a violation of the DMCA."

And technically, he's right, at least in terms of circumventing copyright mechanisms to make said copy. But what's startling about the comment is that the MPAA has traditionally hid behind the threat of mass software piracy and the resulting lost sales in supporting the DMCA, but apparently you're no better than pirates for profit if you make a single backup copy of a DVD you already paid for.

"We believe the buyer has that right to play a DVD as many times as they want," Don Scott, one of RealDVD's attorneys, told Patel. "We think he also has the right to make a copy, this fair use copy."

So do we, Scott.

MPAA Suffers Serious Layoffs

Paul Lilly — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:34:08 -0600

Citing an un-named studio source, CNet says the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has gone through a "significant" round layoffs. Significant in this case means over 10 percent, with even more layoffs on the way, according to the source.

The MPAA apparently confirmed the layoffs to CNet, but wasn't as forthcoming on the exact number. Nor did the company say how the staff reduction would affect its antipiracy efforts, including its current legal battle against RealDVD over alleged copyright infringement, which is scheduled to go to court again on April 1. But an MPAA spokeswoman did say that its leadership is mostly unaffected, perhaps suggesting that the trade group has no plans of letting up its copyright crusade on behalf of the six largest film studios it represents.

Image Credit: MPAA

The MPAA Sends Obama their Copyright Wish List

Paul Lilly — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:40:14 -0600

President-elect Barack Obama has yet to officially take office, but the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has already begun briefing him with its political wish list, which is available for all to see. New transition team policies means that the Obama transition team is publicizing its meetings with interest groups and making all materials provided by those groups available on the change.gov website.

In the one-page MPAA document, Canada and Spain are singled out for "priority trade policy attention," and a call is made for more pressure on other countries to curb camcording in theaters, which the MPAA claims "remains the major source of pirated motion pictures." But the most interesting part of the document is a section titled Fighting Internet Piracy.

"One of the MPAA's top priorities is attacking internet piracy, through vigorous investigation and enforcement worldwide, as well as working with governmens to ensure that their laws provide adequate remedies to stop internet piracyand are in full compliance with the WIPO Treaties," the MPAA writes.

The MPAA goes on to point out recent efforts by the governments of France and the UK as having useful models, which is a reference to the controversial 'three-strikes' rule (officially dubbed 'graduated response') the music industry has been pushing in Europe, according to ArsTechnica.

MPAA Throws a Fit at EFF Over Real DVD Lawsuit Statement

Alex Castle — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 15:25:28 -0500

Monday, the MPAA posted an open letter to the EFF titled “Hollywood isn’t Living in the Past, EFF Shouldn’t Either.” The testily-titled missive contains the association’s responses to claims that its actions against the RealDVD DVD burning software are an attempt to maintain control over technology and innovation.

In the most pointed paragraph of the letter, the MPAA’s Jeff Williams writes:

“Forgive us if we take offense when the EFF and other activist organizations that continually take the side of those who profit from widespread copyright infringement attack our industry as one that stifles innovation. It's a desperate throw-back to the Napster days of old when they pull out this tired and weathered playbook. It's not 2001 anymore.”

The letter also argues that Hollywood and the internet are no longer at odds, and that legal services like iTunes and Hulu represent ways in which the industry is embracing innovation.

What do you think? Is the MPAA right to say that “The days of Hollywood being from Mars and Silicon Valley being from Venus are simply over?” Hit the jump and let us know.

Image Credit: Real

MPAA Sues RealNetworks Over DVD Copying Tool

Pulkit Chandna — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:10:53 -0500

Although RealNetworks downplayed any legal perils while announcing its DVD copying software last month, the major film studios have acted in the most obvious manner possible by suing the software company.

In the eye of the storm lies RealNetworks’ DVD copying tool called ReadDVD that allows users to make digital copies of their DVDs on their internal or external hard drives. However, the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) hasn’t taken a liking to the tool. The MPAA has dragged RealNetworks to court over RealDVD and is praying for a temporary restraining order against the sale of the software.

Greg Goeckner, executive vice president of MPAA, quipped that the software be called StealDVD instead of RealDVD. However, RealNetworks feels that the software can not be used for piracy as it encrypts the digital copies in such a manner that they can’t be shared.

Image Credit: eHomeUpgrade

MPAA Says Anti-Piracy Efforts Are Reason Behind The Dark Knight Success

Chris Moody — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:50:03 -0500

You have to love the spin doctors. No not the band, the group of people that are try to put a certain angle on a viewpoint. Specifically the MPAA’s latest claim that The Dark Knight had such a smash opening weekend was because of their efforts against piracy. It couldn’t possibly be because the movie was actually good, could it?

TechDirt.com points out that the MPAA would have us ignore the awesome reviews, that the movie was available in IMAX (which you can't replicate at home), or that the movie was available online right after it was released in their claims.

In the LA Times article that spawned this debate, the MPAA’s argument cites the original Hulk movie. They argue that a rough, early version of the movie by Ang Lee made its way to the internet about two weeks before the film's scheduled premiere which provoked negative reactions from the comic-book’s devoted fans.

"A lot of people decided not to go near it. Hollywood argued, correctly, that many more people would have gone to see it, had online buzz not been so critical of the movie," said Eric Garland, the chief executive of BigChampagne Online Media Measurement, which monitors file-sharing networks. He is later quoted in the article as saying, "If the movie's a stiff, and word gets out too early that it's a stiff, it's devastating to the business model”.

No kidding? So moviegoers should pay to see a movie that’s crap so we don’t devastate the movie industries business model? Hulk grossed $62 million in its first weekend. A respectable amount, but by the second week reviews and word of mouth pushed grosses down 70%. If the leak of the rough version hurt the movie so bad, why did it have to be out for a week for people to turn up their noses at it? Face it the movie stunk.

When your position has such weak standing in the first place, it’s hard to spin the topic in your favor. If the MPAA wants to know why theater attendance is down they just talk to the people, and not try to pin the cause to fit their agenda. Why should a couple spend nearly $30 to get into a movie, plus another $15 on snacks and drinks to sit in some fairly uncomfortable chairs, elbow to elbow with strangers for a mediocre movie? DVDs and home theater make it pretty appealing to wait it out and catch it at home six months later.

In this respect the RIAA and the MPAA are just alike. Technology has changed and is allowing people to make other choices. Their members are creating entertainment designed to fit is a winning “formula”, all while the price on this entertainment goes up. Why are CD sales down? Try making an album that has more than one or two decent songs on it instead of filling it with B-sides. I’d rather go to Amazon.com and buy the one song for around a $1 than pay $15+ for the CD full of crap.

What do you think? Does the MPAA have it wrong?

DVD Copying Is On The Rise

Justin Kerr — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:36:40 -0500

Making copies of protected DVD media is complicated process conducted over dark fiber and only by the hacker elite, or is it? A new survey conducted by Futuresource Consulting shows that in reality, more than one in three US & UK residents have owned up to making copies of content they didn’t own. These numbers are up sharply from the one in four self proclaimed pirates surveyed during the previous year. The results tell the true story of what keeps Hollywood executives up at night. Is the movie industry doomed to suffer the same collapse facing music labels?

Readers of Maximum PC know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to getting the most out of their media libraries. But the reality is even the average home user is now capable of easily copying protected media and is doing so at alarming rates. Inexpensive or often free utilities make this once painfully difficult task little more then a few simple clicks. Hollywood blockbusters are the most popular target in the US, with rent and rip being the most common form of piracy. The UK on the other hand has shown a preferred taste for TV show duplication with around 61% anonymously owning up to the deed. The most shocking statistic however is that of lost sales. On average seven of ten consumers surveyed admitted they would have considered buying some, if not all of the content illegally copied had they not been able to easily copy.

The survey makes one fact painfully clear, video piracy is definitely on the rise. Another trend to take note of here is the stunning similarity between the survey results and what was observed during the early days of the music industry’s decline. Piracy of music reached critical mass with the birth of the mp3. As the container format gained steam and consumers found it an efficient way to store and distribute digital copies of their music, sales began their downward march. Are movies far behind? With DVD duplication already on the rise, and container formats such as MPEG-4 making video storage more efficient, the film and TV industry is showing very similar warning signals. Once again consumers are showing that they have no problem defusing DRM, and they will ultimately decide how to consume media.