Judge rules in favor of Kaleidescape.. DVD's may be stored on HDD

[korben_dallas]

http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArtic...etimes_newsRSS

EE Times
(03/29/2007 4:31 PM EDT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Superior Court judge ruled Thursday (March 29) a startup's media server does not violate the security technology used to protect DVD disks because the standard licensing contract and specifications for the technology are so poorly worded.

Judge Leslie C. Nichols ruled against the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) in a civil suit that asked the court to force startup Kaleidescape to change its design or stop selling its server that stores hundreds of DVD movies on a hard drive array. Nichols said the basis for his decision was his ruling that an entire section of the DVD CCA's spec for the Content Scramble System (CSS) was not technically included as part of the license agreement.

The Kaleidescape system imports DVDs into a hard drive array for future playback. The DVD disks do not remain in the system, something the DVD CCA said would allow users to keep unauthorized digital copies of rented or borrowed DVDs.

Kaleidescape maintained the CSS agreement allowed the company to build a system that kept a single, protected copy of a DVD on a hard drive for private use. The company has a policy against importing rented and borrowed DVDs. It said the fact such disks could still be imported is a problem for studios, not Kaleidescape to solve.

Now if we can just get some competiton out there (Kaleidescape starts at $10k), this would be a boon for us HTPC'ers. And I think digital storage of DVD's would put some big pressure on BD/HD DVD to get managed copy going asap.

[UFGrayMatter]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArtic...etimes_newsRSS



Now if we can just get some competiton out there (Kaleidescape starts at $10k), this would be a boon for us HTPC'ers. And I think digital storage of DVD's would put some big pressure on BD/HD DVD to get managed copy going asap.

just make your own server

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by korben_dallas

http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArtic...etimes_newsRSS



Now if we can just get some competiton out there (Kaleidescape starts at $10k), this would be a boon for us HTPC'ers. And I think digital storage of DVD's would put some big pressure on BD/HD DVD to get managed copy going asap.

undoubtedly the cost is in the license..

[SHS]

DVD CCA may appeal the decision which mean a higher court decision hopely if that fail they give up.

[mdnttoker]

Actually, this ruling doesn't help much. It was very narrow:

"Nichols said the basis for his decision was his ruling that an entire section of the DVD CCA's spec for the Content Scramble System (CSS) was not technically included as part of the license agreement."

You can be sure that the DVD CCA will amend their license agreements in the future to prevent such a situation....

[stanger89]

While I am glad to see Kaleidescape "win" this case, since it was a bogus case from the start, it doesn't do anything for us. The Judge carefully avoided Fair Use and Copyright issues.

Since there are no licensed DVD servers for the PC, it doesn't help us at all. There is hope, I suppose, that this could open the door for more DVD servers, but I suspect the DVD CCA can effectively lock anyone else out with red tape.