321 Studios, the worldwide leader in DVD back up, recovery, and creation software, today vowed to continue the fight for Americans' right to make backups of legally-purchased DVDs and to appeal the ruling by United States Librarian of Congress.
A review of digital fair use under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), resulted in a decision by the Librarian of Congress that Americans should not be allowed to restore or backup DVDs they lawfully purchased, even when they are damaged and become unplayable.
This means that Americans cannot disable access control mechanisms on DVDs in order to restore lost access or make a backup copy for safekeeping even when they have lawfully purchased the DVD and it stops working. Ignoring evidence that many DVDs are out of print and hard to replace, the Librarian relied on the flawed reasoning of the U.S. Register of Copyrights, who told him that consumers don't need to take steps to preserve access to DVDs they have purchased because there is a "ready availability of replacement copies in the market at reasonable cost." In short, the ruling is saying to people: If a DVD is flawed, forget about trying to restore it -- go spend more money on a replacement copy. In addition, the Librarian rejected the suggestion that consumers may take reasonable steps to skip advertisements on commercial DVDs.
Moore continued: "Our customers are not pirates or criminals -- they're soccer moms who want to make sure The Little Mermaid is always at hand, dads who want to protect their movies from the 'DVD rot and delamination' they've been hearing about and are starting to witness first-hand, and movie lovers who can't find a replacement copy of an out-of-print work or who can't afford to buy a second or third copy of The Matrix after the original gets so scratched the DVD player can't read it." |
In an effort to secure a balanced, consumer-friendly interpretation of the DMCA, 321 Studios has filed a declaratory judgment action against eight major motion picture studios. Currently, the company is waiting for a California-based federal court to rule on a partial summary judgment motion in a counter-claim suit filed by seven of the same studios. If you agree with Robert Moore you may show your support by using 321 Studios products.
Piracy is wrong, but we need a method of backing up our investments. I'm not an attorney, but if I read this article correctly, it is now against the law to hold down the shift key while inserting optical media in your PC in the US.
Sunncomm must be thrilled.
Source: mi2n.com
