Bad news CloneCD stoped for good Elaborate Bytes announced

[Jo]

Elaborate Bytes has announced that they will not be releasing a new CloneCD version because the German copyright laws have become too strict. This is a big disappointment for a lot of people since, as most of our visitors will know, CloneCD was one of the first software tools available with which you could back-up copy-protected discs.

A lot of new versions were released throughout the years until suddenly last year development of CloneCD seemed to have stopped. Most of our visitors believed this was due to the company working on their new CloneDVD software but as it turns out, the German copyright laws have forced Elby to stop development:

Thank you for your inquiry. From August 2003 our program will be illegal in Germany due to new copyrightlaws (along with other copy software like Alcohol, BlindWrite, MovieJack et.al.).Other european countries will follow... thus we are forced to discontinue thedevelopement of our software. Otherwise we could be sentenced up to three years in prison.

CloneCD 4.2.0.2. will be the last version of this copy software. We"re sorry, but we have no other choice. Our company has moved to Switzerland, but we don"t know by now whether we will be safe fromorganizations like RIAA, MPAA, GEMA (Germany) there, thus we prefer to work on other software that is not forbidden. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Your Elaborate Bytes Team


Very sad news for people who were hoping for a new CloneCD version.. Let's hope CloneDVD will become as big as CloneCD someday!



PS i will miss this software very much

[Jo]

Just a little update
According to CloneCD team, from August 2003 the legendary CloneCD program will be illegal in Germany due to new copyright laws. Other European countries will follow the Germany's laws and thus Elaborate Bytes are forced to discontinue the development of its software, in order to avoid prosecution.
CloneCD 4.2.0.2. Will be possibly the last version of this copy software. According to the company. “.. Although Elaborate Bytes has moved to Switzerland, but we don't know by now whether we will be safe from organizations like RIAA, MPAA, GEMA.."

Today CloneCD is, -in the way it is now-, illegal in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and UK (?), if the new EU right is passing the parliaments. So the company stopped producing the Box Version in May 2003 and hopes to hold an online version that will be located in Switzerland.

“.. A lot of persons think that the EU law can't get us for CCD, because our main office is located in Switzerland, but that is wrong: there are some special agreements between the EU and Switzerland that allow to get the CloneCD author (Oliver), or the Elaborate Bytes AG (that have all rights on CCD) "judged" by EU laws, even Oliver would live in Switzerland or somewhere else in the EU. However, Oliver and the head of the ELBY AG don't want to go to jail.."

The situation was already known a couple of months ago. In that moment the "new" law had just passed the German parliament, and Elaborate Bytes had to stop selling and developing CloneCD and Virtual CloneDrive from Germany; or try to make it "legal" again.

That means if the user is located in EU/UK/US/JP, he cannot copy ANY protected Audio- or GameCD. (If you move with your PC to Switzerland, you can do it further on, or just look for a *patch* in the web, to get the hole functions of CloneCD.)

The new copyright laws will possibly influence other relative software packages available in the market. VSO (located in France) and some others (i.e.: S.A.D., CDRwin) will be possibly illegal as well.

Alcohol-Soft is developed by DaemonTools teamed up together with a Chinese company (FantonCD), but the whole selling and official developing is located in China/Taiwan. It is not clear whether the EU/UK/US laws will also affect them

[Greg12]

and they said that these laws wouldn't hurt technological development.

[mysticgohan17]

oh come on, its asia. that's where they should try to stop piracy.