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[IP] more on Movie Industry Sues More DVD Chip Makers on Piracy



Begin forwarded message:

From: Tim Onosko <tim@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 24, 2004 8:59:40 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Movie Industry Sues More DVD Chip Makers on Piracy

Dave:
I have some insight into this that I can share with the list, regarding what "appropriate" security features are, according to the MPAA. They are in total, three.
1) The ability to capture or intercept a DeCSS'd (unencrypted) video stream. This has upset the studios before, although there is plenty of commonly available software that effectively does the same thing, and much easier, as well.
2) The ability to defeat Macrovision and/or CGMS, copy protection systems that prevent the analog output from being recorded on a VHS or DVD video recorder. There are simple hacks for many (if not the majority) of the players that have been manufactured to defeat Macrovision and/or CGMS.
3) The ability to defeat "region coding." That is, every DVD player is designed to play programs meant for its own region only. But in most nations of the world, the players are hacked so that others outside the USA can buy and enjoy DVDs produced for the American domestic market. In the beginning, before various nations developed their own DVD programming, this is how DVD gained popularity as a medium. Region-free players are common outside the US, and in Asia, for instance, they are the rule rather than the exception. The hypocrisy of this is best illustrated by the fact that Amazon.com sells only US discs for the US market, while Amazon sites around the world offer US discs for foreign markets, and sell region-free players to encourage the practice. (Most DVD players already play PAL TV signals on NTSC television sets, and vice versa.)
There are, by the way, common PC programs for defeating the last two of these, as well. The MPAA's action, it seems to me, is only like a finger in the dike, trying to prevent customers from doing whatever they want to with this medium. And, to some extent, this action does seem a bit like biting the hand that feeds you, since it was cheap VLSI chips like these that led to sub-$50 Chinese-made DVD players and greater than 60% penetration of the medium in the United States. A HUGE win for the movie business. 



At 04:39 PM 8/24/2004, you wrote:


___

Dave Farber  +1 412 726 9889



...... Forwarded Message .......
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@xxxxxxx>
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx> 
Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 13:16:46 -0700
Subj: Movie Industry Sues More DVD Chip Makers on Piracy

Movie Industry Sues More DVD Chip Makers on Piracy
Tue Aug 24,11:06 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040824/media_nm/ tech_dvd_suit_ 
dc_3



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -  The representative for Hollywood's major movie
studios on Monday said its members have sued two microchip makers, alleging 
they sold their products to makers of equipment that can be used to
illegally copy DVDs.
The suits are the latest legal action by the Motion Picture Association of 
America, which claims its members loose billions of dollars annually to
copyright piracy.
The MPAA said the suits against Sigma Designs Inc. (Nasdaq:SIGM - news) and MediaTek Inc. (2454.TW) followed testing that it said proved the two were selling microchips to companies, whose DVD players lack what the MPAA called 
"appropriate security features."

 The suits were filed in California Superior Court in Los Angeles.
Sigma and MediaTek make chips to decode the Content Scramble System, or 
CSS, which is the copy-protection system used for DVDs. Their licenses
require that they sell only to other CSS-licensed companies.

 A spokesman for Milpitas, California-based Sigma was not immediately
available to comment, nor was a spokesman for Taiwan-based MediaTek.
The CSS license pact has aided the success of DVDs because it has provided protection against illegal copying to copyright owners of movies, television 
shows and other content sold on DVD.

 In July a California court issued a preliminary injunction barring ESS
Technology Inc. (Nasdaq:ESST - news) from selling its own CSS-decoding chips 
to unlicensed makers of DVD players.
The MPAA, recognizing the damage the advent of digital file-sharing did to the music industry, has waged an aggressive campaign against movie piracy. It has sued people and companies for purported acts of piracy and rewarded movie projectionists for turning in people who make illegal recordings in 
theaters.
Last week it was dealt a blow as a federal appeals court said a number of 
notable makers of file-sharing software could not be held liable for
copyright infringement. They had been sued by movie and music companies who claimed they should be held liable because of how their software was used. 



--
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
http://www.ibd.com



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