321 Studios: serious staff cuts
p2pnet.net News:- Sad news: it appears Big Music’s attacks on 321 Studios have meant serious staff cut-backs.
Nearly 300 people received the pink slip during the past couple of months, says afterdawn.com here, quoting 321 spokeswoman Julia Bishop-Cross as saying the company has shrunk from nearly 400 employees to about 50.
The news makes even worse reading considering Big Music’s carved-in-rock position that copying is Absolutely Forbidden may be in the process of being modified.
“Record labels are seeking a way to let consumers make a limited number of copies of their music – enough for a car, a vacation home and a friend, for example – without allowing for uncontrolled duplication,” says a CNET story here. “Under the current system, each copied CD can itself lead to an unlimited number of additional copies, cutting substantially into sales, they say.”
If that’s indeed the case, why are they still all over 321 Studios?
Founder Bob Moore maintains that it’s only fair that people should be able to copy their CDs and DVDs, even if it means getting around entertainment industry imposed ‘copy protection‘ technologies.
And he’s right.
However, 321’s DVD X Copy back-up app with a built-in ripper violates copyright laws, says the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) in the person of Jack Valenti.
After the MPAA launched a legal attack against Moore’s software, he was ordered to stop selling it.
June 10th, 2004 at 7:27 pm
I find it ironic that they go after 321 Studio for making a software package for individual use, and then I see and ad or two or three next to 321 studio advertising, that they will do the same duplication for you. (Obviously not for free.) Please tell me what is the difference between a company duplicating a disk for you and you doing the same for yourself with DVD X Copy?
Upset..
June 10th, 2004 at 7:32 pm
who cares? 321 sux!
June 10th, 2004 at 7:37 pm
You may not care about 321 Studios or their software, but they have spent millions of their own profits to fight for your rigtht to back up your DVD’s and CD’s.
June 10th, 2004 at 10:49 pm
Let’s see, big corporations telling us what we can and can’t do with something we own and the government that’s paid by them is making sure of that! Hmm, sounds like the same old thing to me.
I say we do everything in our power to copy all the music, and movies and buy nothing from them. Create groups in communities that each person puts in 10 cents and they get a CD and then everyone makes all copy of it, and make an additional copy and give to a friend, and so on. Forget this; we need to be good routine. Our rights are suffering and they have scores of lawyers out there making sure we just shut the F*%* up!
Make them suffer till they get out of our personal use and business.
–Paxi–
June 10th, 2004 at 10:52 pm
Now that I have put it on my computer I have not been able to get it to burn 1 DVD Since the company is having all of these problems I cant even get tech. So not only it the company paying but people who have spent good money to make copies of their own stuff. Now I’ve spent $100 and cant even use it. The program just seems to run…runn and run never gets to the copy stage.. it often just stops repsonding. can anyone help???
June 11th, 2004 at 12:24 am
If you only knew. I am a former employee of 321 Studios. These guys care NOTHING for the DMCA or YOUR RIGHTS. They only care about the exploitation of the MPAA and making MILLIONS of dollars.
June 11th, 2004 at 3:19 am
Yea Uninstall dvd crap copy and get yourself the FREE dvdshrink from, http://www.dvdshrink.org Works like a charm and if you have nero it is easy as pie.
June 11th, 2004 at 4:24 am
I bought DVD X Copy, never made 1 suck-cessful copy, then I was stupid enough to go back and buy Game X Copy and it has yet to make one good copy. Well, they should start copying my money because they will never see another penny from me. What a bunch of money hungry pukes churning out crap. They are WORSE than the RIAA or MPIA.
June 11th, 2004 at 5:48 am
I am also a former “thank god” employee those guys are a bunch of frigging crooks. They could give a crap less if you can make a copy or not. They just want your money why do you think the tech support had a 1:30 wait time last year and they were steady cutting employees and making us get the customer off the phone right away. The moral at that place had gone to sh*t cause no one knew who was going to be cut next. There crap software is so frigging picky and i feel sorry for anybody that bought or stole it.
Either way you got ripped off cause of all the coasters that you make. They were always blaming other peoples software as the reason for it not working and 95% of the software was not really interfering with it at all that was just a way to get people off the phone. They got rid of there 800 # cause it was costing this a arm & a leg cause the stuff don’t work. I quit after they told me to support a known pirate that was selling movies on the street. I refused to support him and they had the frigging nerve to write me up for not supporting him. I told them I would support him if they put it in writing on company letterhead ( which of course they would not) If they would of been stupid enough to do that i would of taken it straight to the mpaa. They don’t care if you pirate so long as you say you did not say you were they will support you cause all there care about is getting your damn money. I had also heard that they were helping people to install the ripper back into the software to try to make it work not that it actually would. So here is the deal if you want to make a copy of a DVD don’t waste your time with DVD crap copy just use dvdshrink you can get it from http://www.dvdshrink.org it is FREE and works 1000% better than x crappy and you can leave the movie on your hard drive for later use. O and if you think you going to get a rebate from them don’t hold your breath you will die waiting. Most of the rebates they actually sent were like 6-9 months or MORE after they were submitted IF THEY WERE SENT AT ALL.
Just my info on 321 sucks.
I hope Robert Moore rots in jail
O and for the former employees that know me this is Big Mike
June 11th, 2004 at 5:53 am
That is a 1 1/2 HOUR Wait time not a minute.
Big Mike
June 11th, 2004 at 7:55 am
Serves you right, you fucking assholes.
June 11th, 2004 at 9:54 am
I purchased the original software, before the ripper mod. It works like a charm and I have backed up my entire collection. Its perfect. Not sure about the new versions though after the ripper mods. If they win, then the full versions will surface again. My only probelms were when using very cheap DVD-R’s, use OK quality ones and it is 100%.
June 11th, 2004 at 1:27 pm
We are truely disgusted with Valenti, and his Japanese Corporate studio owners over the copyright infringment nonsense. Once again the people who gave us Pearl Harbor are intent on gaining extended rights in the US that they refuse to allow US owned companies in their own country. This is the nation that sold our top secret submarine technology to Comunist China (silient propeller designs). Then they come here and Sony buys music rights and a major studio and suddenly we cave in to them and “fair use” is out the window.
What have they contributed? Nothing! They complain bitterly that copying has cut record sales and yet they ignore that the exhorbitant price increases for DVD’s and CD’s are the real causes (see recent studies on the market by Harvard and Stanford Universities). Like whiners every where they cannot accept that their own greed and stupidity have made the market what it is. So they blame everybody else!
To top it off, anyone who owns any older CD’s knows that they do have a limited life span and degrade in quality all too quickly. The ownership od a CD and the “limited license of use” does not imply that they will replace old media when it becomes damaged or unusable. The fair use doctrine simply states that an owner of such media shall have the right to make and keep back-ups of such media for just this purpose. And now they go after kids who share a few files and 321 studios because their grasping avarice cannot contemplate any notion of “fairness.”
I urge all of us to write AND call your representatives in Washington to stop these attacks on Fair Use.
Nightmedic
June 11th, 2004 at 3:31 pm
You guys whining about working at 321 are pathetic losers. Boo hooing and talking trash about your former employer displays your immaturity. The software works just fine for me. If you care about people so much, then volunteer to help those in need. There is nothing wrong with making money. You should learn how to do it instead of hating those who have. My empathy goes out to those who have lost their jobs, and needed them to support themselves and their family- not the ones who can’t buy the latest game now.
June 11th, 2004 at 3:39 pm
I, also am a previous employee of 321 Studios ( I was there when there were only about 30 of us ), and yes I also saw this coming. There were many business practices and ideas/products that I did not agree with (mainly the lack of following set software testing standards, frivilous spending on the offices, and hiring of un-nessicery staff when in the middle of a lawsuit). I also was not happy with the way that money came before the customer, “Profit before Perfection” was the quote, I know typical corporate saying, but it was hypocritical to what we told the customer. Some say it’s just business, I say it was wrong. I was with the company for almost 2 years and when I started it was a small “Mom & Pop” style operation and really had family values in the workplace, I was proud to work for such a close knit group. By the time I left the values were preached, but not truely there, it was nothing more then a corporate company trying to make money as quickly as possible with minimum effort (ie. the “hose ‘m and close ‘m” technique preached by Tech Support managers, or the Platinum debacle when it was first released). We all had our grievences. For months prior me leaving I was considering leaving due to moral issues, but the company was doing well and I was getting a paycheck, so I stayed, call me a hypocrite but welcome to America. This company turned into a typical American Corporation, it was bound to happen, none of us had any power over that, and with the lawsuits it was a matter of time that we would go.
Now you saying strictly flaming 321, and saying Robert should rot in Jail, shame on you. You were given employment during an economic recession in a company that was growing faster then anything out there. You got your paychecks for the agreed upon rate, and it was a pretty cushy job (and I know I worked in several departments, including Tech Support/Customer Service). Roberts intelligence was the reason you had a job. You should thank him for believing in a cause. And in the end he was not holding too many of the strings, so do not pit your blame on him. To lash out at one individual because you got laid off is childish and ignorant.
To Robert, if you read this. And fair use is STILL #1 on your mind everyday you go in to the office, instead of thinking in $’s. You’ve made your point, and the fame that 321 Studios had, that has started dying out, stoked the fire of a Fair-Use Revolution that has been around for years and made the flames so big that Hollywood was shaking for a bit. You made a huge gamble, won a lot, lost a lot, and it’s time to cash in the chips and call it a night. The fight will go on without you, you can see it everywhere. Be proud of that.
(name withheld for personal and business reasons)
June 11th, 2004 at 5:56 pm
GOOD, THE SOFTWARE SUCKS ANYWAYS
June 11th, 2004 at 10:41 pm
It’s the “Golden Rule”….he who has the gold, makes the rules. It’s all about greed…namely the motion picture industry. Will Rogers once said “we have some of the best politicians that money can buy”.
June 12th, 2004 at 10:10 am
I, too, am another post-employee, and agree that personal blame should not be put. Many mistakes were made in the management of the company, but Robert had a solid belief that I feel both helped and hindered. He would tell me “Even if I do not like someone I place in a position of power, I still have to trust them if with the power, or their job is meaningless.”
While this is a strong virtue, I believe this helped cause a large part of the problems. Instead of the company feeling like a family, where problems could be worked out, it felt like a prison, where the slightest infraction could cause penalty. These infractions could be anything, including needing to use the restroom more than once a day.
I am behind Roberts ideas on rights outside the company, but he needs to realize that some of the people he has as liutenants are too biased to lead a company that works.
Remember: Some of the biggest problem-students in history turned into exceptional people.
While many opportunities were abundant throughout the time I was there, often times I would witness some truly talented and great techs getting ignored / scolded / even fired, for merely stating that they have found the answer to a problem some customers were having. With the little power granted me, I would try to help these people be heard, spread their wisdom, even hire them back out of the department they were losing their job from, but I too got the slip when a specific individual decided I did not “Fit in”. My argument with this decision: I can list the names of no less than 40 techs, and 20+ administration people that had a harder time in their job due to me not being there the next week.
As of right now, the only thing that keeps me from regrets at this job, is that one of the people that I sacrificed my best position to save his job is STILL employed. That is, up until the company shuts down. I feel that the 7-8 months extra paychecks and experience on resume for a dear friend are worth the sacrifice I made of position that placed me under the management that I feel so proudly has screwed things up, and eventually landed me in the dumpster.
To Robert Moore: Thanks for putting faith in me for the couple months I felt I was making a difference. The one major misunderstanding between us was resolved without firings, and I feel many good things came from it. Thank you.
To Rob Semaan: You have been, and still are, a great example of how I think a businessman should be. It has been a great honor working for you, both directly and indirectly.
To John Minakais: I remember you told me once about how good a boss you were. I understood it, but did not fully appreciate it until having to work under Jere. Thank you for being that boss that put up with my antics. I hope to work with you some day in the future, but on your side of the table. (If I were on the other side, I have a feeling my company would be on the losing side of the bargain!)
To Mike Wozniak: You are a great inspiration. Please do no change. Always willing to listen, without judgement and with lots of encouragment. I wish I had taken the position you offered me many months before.
To my co-workers: I hope that I have helped many of you understand the technologies, and how they affect us. If I ever came across as conceited or a know-it-all, I am sorry. I do not think lower of you, I am just too enthusiastic about trying to teach these things. Sometimes I end up leaving people behind, but it is not meant in a bad way.
Much of this job changed my life. In many ways good, some bad.
To Jere W:
I hope you realize just how profoundly you can screw up lives. I had faith in the company until I worked with you. I honestly hope that someday, somewhere, you end up serving me fries with my Big Mac.
Tim, Tammy, Jason, James, Tara, Brian, Kevin, Dave, Slater, etc…:
Whether you disagreed with me or not, it has been a lot of fun. I hope to work with all of you again at some point in my life.
As many of the previous comments are posted anonymously, I respect them nonetheless. But I have nothing to be ashamed of, and do not feel my views are damaging. Perhaps the people named could learn from this, and the better will come of it.
Sincerely,
Tony Dolan
Former Tech Support, Trainer, Software scouting, Q/A, and answer guy.
June 12th, 2004 at 10:37 pm
you dont even need to spend 60 bucks on some shitty software. if you fucking morons knew anything at all there are tons of freeware apps that do a better job than DVD X Copy.
June 12th, 2004 at 11:35 pm
it was awesome ride, i didn’t work at 321 studios, but i did however distribute their products to retailers across the globe. I personally sold thousands of units of x copy ranging from the standard , gold and platinum. And you know what? i didn’t have one return from any retailer….. the only regret i have about this product is that we sold out and didn’t get a chance to keep a copy for myself to back up my simpsons dvd collection… kids got to them many times and the dvds got scratched and can no longer be repaired and played…. Wish i would of used dvd x copy…….
June 13th, 2004 at 7:47 am
Amen Brother.
I will take my fries super size from Jeri.
Mike S
June 13th, 2004 at 6:38 pm
all of you may spot the pro’s and con’s of this company having worked for them. But whether you praise 321 for their business sense or not, understand that there are people out there who have legally purchased a version of this crappy product, the code from the demo is even different to the purchased version! I downloaded the trial – thought it was brilliant and purchased the full version – discounted at £30. Every person who has purchased this product has probably (having read millions of posts) experianced the same problems. As far as I’m concerned – Robert Moore can rot in jail, or alternatively, help this other chap serve me fries with a big mac, the technical support at the organisation should remove the word support from the title – having on no less than three ocasions, having to explain the concepts of computers to some support line person that doesn’t know how to switch the machine on.
Those of you who have left due to ethical reasons, good for you – but do not praise an organisation who has screwed so many hundreds and thousands of people, out of a lot of money – by providing nothing better than a buggy application that takes 20 minutes to load or just crashes. after realising a brilliant demo that works in seconds every time.
oh, and sympathies to those that still work there. you’ll need it next time I ring with a problem.
Al
June 14th, 2004 at 1:35 am
Yes there are many free downloads that do the same or better but they are still “illegal to use” to copies of copyrighted dvds because they defeat the copy protection. If they have dual motives for fighting for fair use so be it.
June 14th, 2004 at 1:54 am
It works for me. I havy copied many of my DVDS with no real problems. I have not had a need for the support so I can’t speak of the quality of lack of it for there tech support.
Rick
June 14th, 2004 at 5:57 am
it may be your dvd writer that is the problem. I’ve heard someone else say the same. But, I’m using xcopy express with an HP writer and no real problems. also the blank dvd’s seem to matter too. I’m using verbatim dvd+rw’s. Hope it helps.
June 14th, 2004 at 6:17 am
O so you think that 321 left the copy protection on there think again man, they say you cant make a copy of a copy that is true if you use dxdxcopy but you can use anything else like Nero or ez CD Creator and make a perfect copy of it.
You can also get rid of the backup overture at the beginning of the movie by using ifoedit. Which by the way is made by the same guy that wrote the software for 321sucks.
There is no encryption on the DVD once you copy it with dxdxcopy.
You can see all the ifo and vob if you look at it in windows explorer.
And as far as unique serial # that is a big joke cause the # is the same for all of the software it’s 000000000000000000000000000000 just look at the archive.txt file on the DVD.
June 14th, 2004 at 6:51 am
Oh my, if you don’t like the product, return it and get your money back. I did and they were very plesant about it. It’s not that I didn’t like it, my stand alone DVD player only does -R and my burner is +R. I wasn’t excited about purchasing another recorder or player. The movies copied perfectly onto my hard drive and wrote to the +R – just had to watch em on my ‘puter, sigh.
June 15th, 2004 at 8:31 pm
I’ve heard of customers who can’t get xcopy to work & a friend of mine can not get his to work, but I have used xcopy for about 6 mos. and have had only 1 failure. Have no suggestions why others don’t work but wanted to let xcopy people know that they have 1 pleased customer.
Russ
June 15th, 2004 at 9:27 pm
As mentioned before your have helped the fight against the over paid software and music jackasses. Your message has been heard, and you can guarantee that the fight will continue!
June 16th, 2004 at 12:07 am
Couldn’t happen to a better organization. 321 is hypocritcal when it comes to telling Congress that we have a right to copy DVD’s (which I support) but then will not provide 321 customers with the necessary data to launch their programs. The consumer must log in to their net to activate the program. Their reason….they are afraid of piracy of their product. What a bunch of phonies
June 16th, 2004 at 4:24 pm
I have been using DVDXCopy Express for the last almost 2 years now – never have any failure.
HOWEVER. . . when I tried to upgrade to the Platinum – I have had problems so I discarded Platinum and just used the XPress version – - – now problem till now.
June 16th, 2004 at 4:25 pm
I do not understand why the MPAA is going after 321 when in other parts of the world you can get a bootleg copy of the latest Harry Poter movie on DVD for less than 5 bucks?
Surely the problem is not 321 but the other parts of the world?
I just think the MPAA is going after easy targets and not really going after the root problem.
June 16th, 2004 at 8:52 pm
Well, I am sure it was a “business decision” for 321 to fight for the proper cause, freedom of speech, and more importantly, maintain the staff whose families and community depend who their income…I think any company that sues 321 must demonstrate actual profit damage to their bottom line. Any company that avoids to open their entire financial records to the courts and public, well, whose calling the kettle black! This way, we can understand the real dollar damage..not “PRECEIVED” or “FUTURE” DAMAGE or lawyer retoric.
I backup my purchased DVDs ($12 each) and I like to continue doing it. Oops, someone made a profit on the DVDs I purchased.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Wake up poeple! For Moore and Semaan it was always about the money! They didn’t care about rights. They exploited the issue to benefit their personal fortunes. They got paid millions by the movie studios to admit fault and create a legal precedent for the studios. They sent the money offshore as soon as they got it so their suppliers/creditors could get what they were owed. They did the same thing with LipoDissolve/FIG. Pocketed client and investor money, moved it off shore and left the employees and suppliers hanging. Rob Semaan even moved to Figi. What a pathetic joke!