p2pnet.net News:- Having suffered ignominious defeat in its attempt to nail Norway’s Jon Johansen to the wall, the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) is now apparently trying it on with 321 Studios, maker of DVD copying apps and which has just released three hot new products.

The MPAA’s DVD CCA (DVD Copy Control Association) has filed against 321 Studios in a move which “reflects the organization’s strategic shift to go after businesses instead of individuals,” says an Associated Press story here.

This latest development has the DVD CCA claiming 321’s DVD-copying programs infringe its patents and are being used without proper licenses.

Not that the company is any stranger to Hollywood litigation in North America and elsewhere. Two other cases are pending and 321 is also up against Macrovision which says 321’s DVD X Copy family of DVD disk cloning software products infringes Macrovision’s copy protection technology, as well as violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Owner Bob Moore isn’t taking it lying down, however. He denies all the allegations and in April 2002, sued nine major motion picture studios “not for damages but for clarification of the vague and confusing language that makes up the DMCA” - to confirm 321’s position that consumers who legally purchase a DVD are entitled under the law to make a personal backup copy.

The DVD CCA is now, “turning its focus toward those who produce and broadly distribute products in the marketplace that facilitate the widespread infringement of the copyrights on motion pictures that CSS was designed to protect,” association lawyer Steven Reiss is quoted as saying in the AP story.

321’s DVD Copy and DVD X Copy are highly popular with users and highly unpopular with Hollywood because they allow people to make backups, in the process getting around DRM technologies.

“Julia Bishop-Cross, a 321 spokeswoman, declined to comment, saying the company did not know about the latest lawsuit until contacted by The Associated Press,” AP says, adding:

“But we’re not surprised,” she said. “It seems to be the same old tactic by the studios - to find any way they can to sue us.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2004 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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