321 Studios releases judge-friendly version of DVD software

March 5, 2004

GristyMcFisty
reports us that 321 Studios has today released a 'judge-friendly' version of
their DVD copying software, DVDXCopy. If you've followed the news lately you will probably
have read that 321 Studios has been sued in the U.S. by both the State of California and
New York. Both cases
were lost because the DVDXCopy software has a built-in DeCSS decrypter which
allows users to decrypt the CSS protection found on DVDs. As a result 321
Studios has today released a version of their software without the DeCSS decrypter
software:

Its new ripper-free version of DVDXCOPY
software is available through the company's website and nationwide retail
channels. However the company says it will appeal against the injunction
which has left its product a bit like Hamlet with the main character
deleted.

A company spokesman said that while the California judgment clearly
acknowledges that there are legal backup uses that can be made of DVDs
under fair use, it declared illegal the only commercially-available
software that allows Americans to exercise those fair use rights.

"321 Studios disagrees with both the California and the New York
judgments, and will appeal, continuing to fight back against this fair use
paradox that has effectively stripped away Americans' rights in the
digital future," the spokesman said.

I've just checked out the 321 Studios website and found this message on their forum:
"For those customers receiving the 'CSS encryption error" with the
RF version we will not be able to assist you with this
error as the software no longer has the ability to back up CSS encrypted
DVDs." If you want you can discuss this subject in our Music Downloads, P2P and legal Issues
Forum.

Source: The INQUIRER