Kaleidescape Ruling on DVD Copying Could Quash Innovation
By Julie Jacobson
The DVD CCA wields too much power, and will drive consumers to purchase unlicensed movie service and cheap DVD-ripping software overseas.

The DVD Content Copy Association has won its lawsuit against Kaleidescape, maker of high-end movie servers.

A Santa Clara, Calif., court handed down a temporary judgment on Jan. 9 that Kaleidescape breached its contract with the DVD CCA, which licenses the Content Scramble System (CSS) decryption scheme for DVD players.

Kaleidescape lets users copy their DVDs onto a media server, and play back the movies disc-free. The court ruled that the CSS licensing agreement expressly prohibits this functionality – a disc must be present in the player. Period. It doesn’t matter if the consumer owns the disc. It doesn’t matter if the server is “locked down” with no way to share movies across a network.

I can’t argue with Judge William J. Monahan’s recent ruling in the breach-of-contract case, but I can argue these two things: 1) This is a very sad day for innovation in the digital entertainment realm and 2) there’s something fishy with the DVD CCA’s power.

I should clarify: It is a sad day for innovation when it comes to American-made consumer electronics manufacturers that try to abide by the intent of the law.

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