If you've followed the news lately you will
probably know that 321 Studios, creators of the DVDXCopy and XPRESS software, are involved in a legal battle against
Hollywood for their software. Tomorrow will be an important day since on
this day a federal court will consider the legality of software that
enables users to back-up DVD discs:
 Judge
Illston of the Northern District of California Federal Court in San
Francisco will hear arguments on a case involving 321 Studios' DVD backup
software. 321 Studios opposes a summary judgment motion from movie studios
claiming that the DVD backup software software is unlawful under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Championing the public's rights to use and
innovate with media, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a
friend-of-the-court brief supporting 321 Studios' constitutional challenge
to the DMCA. EFF, along with co-signers Public Knowledge and Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility, argues that tools such as 321's
DVD X-Copy, which enables a user to make a personal backup copy or excerpt
of a DVD, must be lawful because they are necessary to the public's fair
use of digital media.
 The movie studios on the other side of the 321 Studios lawsuit
claim that DVD X-Copy -- and any hardware or software tools that would
allow viewers to back up or extract snippets from DVDs -- is an unlawful
circumvention device.
However, many people use DVD X-Copy for other
purposes than copyright circumvention. Videographers are duplicating their
work, professors are preparing classroom examples, and parents are
creating backups for their children using DVD X-Copy and similar tools.
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As we already mentioned before it really won't make
a lot of difference if Hollywood wins the case against 321 Studios. They might
be able to stop them but there are already enough software packages available to
replace DVDXCopy
and XPRESS.
Nevertheless it will be very interesting to hear what the San Francisco
judge rules tomorrow..
Source: EFF
