Hollywood studios Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Fox sued a handful of software companies Wednesday, accusing that their DVD-copying software violates copyright law. Suits were filed against Tritton Technologies, QOJ, World Reach and Proto Ventures in New York federal court, asking for unspecified damages and a court-ordered halt to the distribution of the software.
Tritton released its DVD CopyWare software, through retail channels in August. The other companies are primarily online distributors, through Web sites such as QOJ's copiesanything.com and World Reach's dvdfastcopy.com.
Representatives for the two studios could not immediately be reached for comment. A Tritton representative declined immediate comment, saying the company needed to review the suit. The lawsuit is the second focusing on software distributed at mainstream retail stores that gives consumers the ability to easily copy DVDs using standard computer equipment. Hollywood executives fear that such software will help push them into the same cycle of piracy and falling revenues that the music industry is now facing. A coalition of Hollywood studios led by the Motion Picture Association of America sued 321 Studios, creator of DVD X Copy and the leader in the DVD backup software market, last year. An initial ruling in the case is expected any time. The studios contend that 321's software violates provisions of copyright law that bars distribution of software that circumvents anticopying protections. Studios have won several victories in their legal attempts to push that information offline, winning a court order barring publisher Eric Corley from posting one of the software tools, called DeCSS, on his Web site or even linking to other sites that were making the program available. However, 321's software, which is much simpler to use, has been available on retail shelves at mainstream stores such as CompUSA for months. Tritton's CopyWare software is available at online stores including Buy.com. |
Tritton Chief Executive Christopher von Huben was suprised to be sued, since his company was acts only as a distributor for the CopyWare software, rather than creating it. He feels his company is comparable to CompUSA distributing 321 Studio's products. However, copyright lawyers doubted that logic would serve to avert a lawsuit.
Source: news.com.com
