Kaleidescape Introduces Expensive And Almost Pointless Blu-ray Jukebox... And Hollywood Still Thinks It's Illegal

from the controlling-innovation dept

You may recall the legal fight over Kaleidescape. The company built a ridiculously expensive (tens of thousands of dollars) DVD jukebox that was clearly designed not for unauthorized file sharing, but for those with a huge disposable income to store their DVDs on the device so it was easier to watch or playback any DVD they owned (you couldn't transfer the movies off the device, so it was useless for further copying). Of course, as usually happens, Hollywood got upset, saying that this process of backing up your DVDs was illegal, using a twisted argument that the encryption on DVDs was broken by this system, and thus it's a violation of the DMCA. This is a massive problem with the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause, which says that even if the copy itself is legal, if it involves encryption, the process of making that (legal) copy, becomes illegal.

While Kaleidescape won in the lower court, the appeals court reversed, highlighting again how Hollywood (despite claims it would never use copyright law to block technology) uses the legal system to block technological innovation.

Kaleidescape has now come out with a new product that actually adds the ability to store Blu-ray discs as well -- which might be a surprise given last summer's ruling. However, in response to the ruling, Kaleidescape added one "feature" which it hopes will satisfy Hollywood lawyers: to play back a movie, you now have to put the original disc into the player. Yes, you read that right. This is a device designed to rip and store your DVDs -- and the only way you can play them back is to go ahead and put the actual DVD into the player to prove that you have it. In other words, it takes away the whole idea of the convenience behind the product.

And, guess what? Hollywood still isn't happy.

The AACS technology and licenses do not permit ripping of Blu-ray discs unless the copy has been authorized by the content owner, either by setting the Copy Control Information appropriately (and nearly all BD movies are set for “Copy Never”, just like DVDs), or by individual authorization through the Managed Copy process, which we anticipate rolling out at the end of this year or the beginning of 2011.

This is exactly what the law is not supposed to do. It's letting Hollywood set the terms of technological innovation, and blocking any concept of fair use or backup copies that are recognized as legal. It's giving Hollywood a veto on technology, and causing tech companies to jump through ridiculous hoops to disable obvious functionality, just because Hollywood doesn't like what it does.

Filed Under: copyright, drm, dvds, jukebox
Companies: kaleidescape, mpaa