Macrovision Wants Old DRM to Work Forever-- but ....

[BJ_M]

"Macrovision's best-known form of copy protection inserts noise into analog video signals to make it difficult to get a good copy of the DVD or VHS recording. A company named Sima has products that eliminate this noise when digitizing such video, as any good digitizer would do. Macrovision argues that this is a violation of the DMCA, and a court sided with them in June. Now the injunction is being reviewed, and several organizations are siding with Sima and Fair Use, including the American Library Association, the Consumer Electronics Association, the Home Recording Rights Coalition, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. If it isn't overturned, this decision could make it illegal to develop products for making copies of commercial analog recordings."


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060816-7517.html

[MOVIEGEEK]

It doesn't surprise me MV would do this after what they did to LightningUK!.

[davideck]

It does surprise me that a SIMA box can be sold at BB or CC right next to the DVD Recorders which are not allowed to blank out MV...

[BJ_M]

they are for different purposes - so it says on the packaging

[ROF]

I know you guys are probably going to believe this is strange coming from me but I do not agree with Macrovision that the Sima product is a violation of the DMCA. Yes, it can be used in some instances to do so but in my opinion it has significant(huge actually) reasons for it's use that does not violate the DMCA. I never really liked Macrovision because of the way it is implemented and what it does.

The Sima product no more violates the DMCA or copyright law than my cassette recorder or MP3 player with voice recorder does. A wise man once said "guns don't kill people . . . certain people with guns kill people." And yet tree limbs(another deadly weapon) are allowed to grow.

[BJ_M]

well stated ..

[thecoalman]

but in my opinion it has significant(huge actually) reasons for it's use that does not violate the DMCA. I never really liked Macrovision because of the way it is implemented and what it does.

Very true, specifically it's a cheap alternative to a TBC where capture devices are seeing MV where none exists.

[mats.hogberg]

Possibly a violation of AMCA if such should exist...

/Mats

[compuser]

It seems to me that MV has a bone to pick with Sima. Wasn't it a couple of years ago or last year that they sued Sima and failed?

[dphirschler]

It's not more a violation that me using an EQ to condition the sound in my stereo.


Darryl