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1. 

   Chris Wuestefeld, 3 Feb 2004 @ 7:57pm

   
   

   Ageless argument

   Note that the actual products are considered illegal - and not the misuse of these products. Once again, we seem to be criminalizing a technology that has legitimate uses, rather than focusing on illegal actions done via the technology.

   Isn't this the same argument as "guns don't kill people; people kill people"? If people can see the absurdity of these laws when applied to copyrights, they'll need to reevaluate any ideas they have about gun control and self defense rights.

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2. 

   Oliver Wendell Jones, 4 Feb 2004 @ 7:24am

   
   

   OK in the USA?

   I bought one of these several years ago, back before the DMCA, and I thought they were still available.
   
   They are a signal booster that allows you to duplicate tapes with minimal loss of quality.
   
   Macrovision works by intentionally messing with a part of the signal that doesn't affect playback on the original, but when you try to copy the signal on a different VCR, mandatory "quality enhancement" electronics try to chase the bogus signal on the original tape resulting in a copy that is horribly degraded.
   
   You'll see the same if you try to run your DVD player through your VCR (as happens to many people who have older model TVs without RCA input jacks, my sister, for example). The brightness will go up and down and up and down and the image will distort and discolor.
   
   The Video Enhancer systems, which sell for $50 and up, stabilize the signal and allow you to copy Macrovision protected tapes. Their intended use is to stablize video signals and produce high quality copy - which makes them legal, not defeating copy protection, just a pleasant bonus feature, which could make them illegal.
   
   They are intended for use with VCRs which are analog systems, which should make them exempt from the DMCA - unless someone got the crazy idea to hook it up between their DVD player and {gasp} VCR and copied a DVD movie to VHS (ugh, who would want that?).

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3. 

   Wklink (profile), 4 Feb 2004 @ 7:26am

   
   

   Legitimate Uses

   There are definitely legitimate uses. DVD players only have RCA and/or S-video outputs. If you have an older TV that doesn't have such inputs, the natural alternative would be to plug it in through a VCR. But you can't do that with MacroVision!
   

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4. 

   Rick Colosimo, 4 Feb 2004 @ 3:26pm

   
   

   Re: OK in the USA?

   You're right, the fair use doctrine should protect *certain* uses of these types of devices, in much the same way as copy machines, scanners, and CDRWs are still legal even though you can steal a book that way.
   
   The EU and the UK have a very different conception of free speech and why it might be useful. Of course, we have free speech in the US exactly because of England's former distaste for that sort of rubbish.

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