With implementation of the new German Copyright Act , it is now illegal to sell or offer anything that circumvents copyright restrictions in that country. With the help of this new EUCD implementation, Macrovision has sent a warning to online retailers in Europe asking them to withdraw the sale of 'Macro 2000' from their web stores. This device circumvents the Macrovision copy protection on DVDs, VHS and other broadcast mediums by stripping the Macrovision signal from the video thus allowing VCRs to record the video signal.
We have already reported on the big electronics chain MediaMarket removing 'Macro 2000' from the shelves just after the German law had been introduced. According to Macrovision, four consumer electronic goods retailers in Germany have so far agreed to remove this product. Macrovision are very pleased with the retailer's compliance to the new law.
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This move follows the interim injunction obtained by Macrovision against Media Markt Frankfurt on September 29, 2003 under the newly enacted German Copyright Act and is part of Macrovision's ongoing enforcement programme in Europe. Macrovision had issued a warning to online retailers against the continued sale of this product. The Copyright Act prohibits the sale of circumvention devices in Germany. Martin Brooker, Macrovision's European Director for Sales commented, "there is a broad acceptance of the new copyright law in Germany and we are pleased that retailers are willing to comply by discontinuing sales of Macro 2000." The European Copyright Directive is in the process of passing through the statutory bodies of each member country and became law in the UK on 31 October 2003. |
It seems rather odd to try and remove anti-Macrovision devices at this stage as Video cassette popularity and particularly VHS piracy have dropped over the last few years. The Macrovision signal has also been known to interfere with some LCD projectors as well as TV tuner cards as these tend to work on the VCR method for capturing the video input. In this case, one would need a copy protection signal stripping device in order to watch a DVD on their affected equipment.
Discuss about copy protections on our Copy Protection Discussion Forum .
Source: Yahoo Financial News
