MPAA Sues Chip Makers

[mcorpse]

MPAA Sues Chip Makers


The MPAA has opened a new front on its war against piracy, this time suing two DVD chip makers for selling their products to DVD equipment manufacturers who do not include "appropriate security features" in their players. In announcing the lawsuit against Sigma Designs of Milpitas, CA and MediaTek of Taiwan, MPAA Chief Technology Counsel Dan Robbins said, "There is no leniency for irresponsible companies that seek to circumvent the system and operate outside of the law."


Source: IMDB

Christ, what will these IDIOTS think of next? Last time I checked, multiregion and Macrovision free players are not illegal. Bastards.

[indolikaa]

MPAA Sues Chip Makers


The MPAA has opened a new front on its war against piracy, this time suing two DVD chip makers for selling their products to DVD equipment manufacturers who do not include "appropriate security features" in their players. In announcing the lawsuit against Sigma Designs of Milpitas, CA and MediaTek of Taiwan, MPAA Chief Technology Counsel Dan Robbins said, "There is no leniency for irresponsible companies that seek to circumvent the system and operate outside of the law."


Source: IMDB

Christ, what will these IDIOTS think of next? Somebody gimme a gun... Last time I checked, multiregion and Macrovision free players are not illegal. Bastards.

This news story is probably in reference to this...
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/5450.cfm

If memory serves, MediaTek is the other company involved in this.

[proxyx99]

As per the link above:

The Motion Picture Association of America accused ESS of braking the CSS license agreement, which prohibits microchip manufacturers from selling DVD chips to hardware manufacturers who have not licensed CSS technology. MPAA claims to having acquired and disassembled a non-licensed player which was equipped with an ESS chip.
ESS claims to be in full compliance of the CSS license, and every other agreement they have made.

If the final product manuf. has licensed CSS technology then ESS is in compliance while the manuf. may not be. Too early to say who is in breach. Also, as per the above, no non-complient players are to be distributed (simply said illegal). ESS has been granted a license provided they sell only to other licensees (final product must be in compliance).

[mcorpse]

Quite amusing how they think they're actually doing something here. Any idiot can make a DVD region or Macrovision free, and legally, so it doesn't really matter if your player is legit or not. The MPAA should just go back into the hole they came from.

[menes777]

Once again the MPAA wants the almighty dollar!

[adam]

Last time I checked, multiregion and Macrovision free players are not illegal. Bastards.

Check again. Macrovision free players and Macrovision removal devices are indeed made illegal under the US DMCA. There is a specific provision giving hardware manufacturer's a time frame (I think it was 2 years) in which to bring their hardware in compliance with the Mandatory Macrovision support.

As for region protection, yes region free devices or players can be used in both legal and illegal ways.

But as proxyx99 noted, this suit apparantly has nothing to do with violation of any Federal law, or with Macrovision or region free devices. It is simply a violation of their license. Its a contract case is all. If ESS agreed not to do something, and bound themselves by law to that agreement, then the MPAA has a right to enforce that agreement.

[Roundabout]

I think this is directly related to this story from last month. The DVD mfgrs are apparently not licensed to sell the chips or use them for any other purpose except in a normal consumer DVD player.

[ViRaL1]

How much of a difference does it make if new players of standard DVDs allow bypassing Macrovision? There are millions of players out now which ARE capable and nothing new is being added to the DVD standard, nor any real new capabilities that would warrant giving up the capability. What a waste of time and money.

[Nilfennasion]

Imagine how the people at Macrovision must feel. Originally, they probably did good business with the film studios and weren't hated so much. Now that the DMCA exists, savvy consumers everywhere are aware of their existence through a legally protected monopoly, and want them out of business. Being hated like that must really get people down.

[SaSi]

In Europe, Denon sells DVD and Universal players with No Macrovision and no region protection as standard. There is no region hack for these players.

Macrovision destroys image quality on high-end systems (their owners claim that macrovision adds a fuzzy feeling on the picture).

Of course, for some time now, Denon machines are built in China, the land of defiance.

BTW, did you know that there are some countries in the world that require their citizens to obtain a licence from the police before they can obtain a licence to connect to the Internet?

Not highjacking the topic, but my point is: If one has the power, they can do what they want with it. There is no way to avoid this. The only thing that can be avoided is allowing people or organizations to get this power at hand.

On the other hand, building a DVD player without the proper licence for the technology it contains is and should be illegal. It's the same like building a PC out of components and dropping in an illegal copy of my favourite Operating system. (Well, if my favourite OS is Linux, then it's a bad example, but for the sake of argument, I like Windows ).

Same applies to the high fashion combo USB MP3 players. Almost half of them are illegal because they don't pay royalties for the MP3 decoding technology they use. They are - also - made in China...