So I’m catching up on my tech news and I come across this headline…
Macrovision Files Lawsuit Against Sima and Interburn’s DVD Copying Products
Macrovision Corporation (Nasdaq: MVSN – News) announced today that it has filed suit against Sima Products Corporation (“Sima”) and Interburn Enterprises Inc. (“Interburn”). The lawsuit charges that Sima’s “Video Enhancers,” which are principally used to allow consumers to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted DVDs, infringe Macrovision’s patented copy protection technology and also violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).
Which got me completely confused on several fronts.
According to MacroVision CEO Bill Krepick, “Sima and Interburn infringe Macrovision’s intellectual property by offering products that enable users to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted content by illegally removing our copy protection system.”
Now maybe I’m reading this wrong, but the way I understand it, the CEO of MacroVision, a company that sells copy protection software to DVD publishers, is sending out a press release saying…
“Our software doesn’t work. It sucks.We can’t stop a bunch of little companies from writing software that completely busts our copy protection that we are selling for millions of dollars to publishers.”
If that’s the case, why in the world are DVD publishers paying Macrovision any money at all?
It’s not like they can stop ripoff shops that illegally rip DVDs, and manufacture counterfeit DVDs and sell them on the streets around the world. The cat’s obviously out of the bag. The software is readily available for those crooks.
For the folks who want to upload DVDs illegally for distribution on P2P sites, once again the cat is out of the bag and has been for years. It’s been easy for these bad guys and girls to crack the Macrovision code and make the content available in any number of file formats.
So if Macrovision can’t stop the bad guys, just what exactly is their purpose in life?
For the Average Joes, it’s not like its easy to rip a DVD. The time it takes, and the processes that you must go through, and then the size of the files, all make it more trouble than its worth to try to copy it to your harddrive to watch from your PC or say your laptop when you are travelling. In spite of the fact that you bought your DVD legally and own it fair and square.
For the average joes, it’s not easy to make a backup copy of the DVD that you know your little kid is going to scratch, or in my case, that I scratch from handling and playing often. Not only is it not easy, but because of the Macrovision copyprotection, it’s completely illegal, despite the fact that you paid your hard earned money for the DVD.
So just what is the purpose of having Macrovision copy protection on DVDs?To raise the price to consumers? To make things more difficult for them? To make sure its illegal to backup DVDs we have purchased?
Am I missing something here?
I could see if the stuff worked and it kept the bad guys from doing bad things. Then it would have to be a price consumers paid. Publishershave a right to protect their content.But, it obviously doesn’t work. If it did, there would be nothing to sue anyone over. Instead they would be taking out ads saying how they kicked all the bad guys’ asses. But they aren’t. They are suing companies and admitting their software sucks.
So hows bout we cut consumers a break and get this shit away from our DVDs.