This has been a bad, bad week for those who want to copy DVDs. Yesterday, a federal judge in San Francisco enjoined RealNetworks from distributing its RealDVD software.
And today, a California appellate court reversed a decision by a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge, who had ruled that Kaleidescape, Inc. was not bound by language in a document called the "General Specifications" that prohibited making permanent copies of DVDs. The trial court's ruling had effectively legalized the selling of Kaleidescape's high-end "DVD jukeboxes." Today's ruling by the Court of Appeal held that the "General Specifications" were indeed part of the DVD CCA's CSS license entered into by Kaleidescape, and remanded to the Superior Court for further proceedings to determine whether Kaleidescape is actually in breach.
It's important to remember that this case involved only a purely state-law contract issue; there were no DMCA or traditional copyright claims in the Kaleidescape case.
Kaleidescape Decision
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
2 comments:
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To me the Kaleidescape product is no different than the VCR/DVD and DVD/DVD recorders that can be bought today, which enable format shifting.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what the courts would rule if the Betamax case were tried today.
@Randy:
ReplyDeleteAs I said in my post, "It's important to remember that this case involved only a purely state-law contract issue; there were no DMCA or traditional copyright claims in the Kaleidescape case." This case simply did not present the question whether Kaleidescape users engage in fair use.