All Articles Tagged dmca

iTunes can rip a CD and make the tracks rapidly available for you to listen to on your iPhone (or iPod) or stream around your house via other computers, or AppleTV/Airtunes and a variety of third party products.

ZDNet thinks they should do the same with DVDs. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy. Why? While ripping CDs is legal in the US, ripping DVDs is not and Hollywood and Big Media would do their best to sue any product, iTunes included, into oblivion if put that feature in. In fact, that’s what they’re doing with Real’s RealDVD right now. This is based on the claim that it violates the DMCA by breaking copy protection, though Real wraps copy protection of their own around the ripped movies).

Apple, of course, has $30 billion in the bank, which could fund one heckuva legal battle (and maybe even get the EFF on their side?) If anyone is in the position to help consumers retain fair use of their media, and increase the functionality and appeal of their own product at the same time, it’s certainly Apple.

But would they spend their time and money litigating the right to rip content from old, legacy media when they’re busily trying to get people to embrace digital downloads of the same content as the “next big thing”? Should they?

For consumers, it would be the same win as letting iTunes rip CDs even as music downloads were coming online. Apple maintains they run iTunes at low-profit levels simply to fuel hardware sales. The same model holds true for DVDs. Some consumers have huge collections of legacy DVDs and would love nothing more than easily, officially, load them up into iTunes and sync them over to their iPhone, iPod, set top box, computer, etc. alongside new digital downloads.

Of course, savvy consumers are already doing this with free, third party programs, and perhaps Apple is happy enough with the status quo. It’s less expensive for them that way, and doesn’t offend the same media companies Apple has deals with for iTunes rentals and downloads.

So the question is, are you happy with the status quo as well? Or is this a fight Apple should be fighting?

The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA)’s latest Quarterly Journal includes an article entitled Apple’s iPhone: The Case For Broadening Exemption Five To 17 Usc 1201 To Ensure Continued Non-Infringing Use Of Wireless Communication Handsets.

The introduction begins provocatively enough by spotlighting an American who, in August 2007, received an AT&T data roaming bill for $4200 after he took his iPhone on a trip to Europe. They do this to point out users who are “angered and frustrated” by carrier lock-ins, and threats that Jailbreaking and unlocking could void their warranties and brick their devices in the future.

The iPhone was chosen to draw a sharp example in support of their arguments in favor of expanding the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act exemption to “better protect non-infringing use” of wireless devices of all types.

We previously heard about the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asking for a DMCA exemption for Jailbreaking and Apple coming out against that idea. As ubiquitous data access becomes more important to more people, however, the real cross-network costs of roaming and the subsidy-based, handset exclusivity business model of big telcos will have to be carefully weighed against users not having to worry about bankruptcy when crossing a geographic border (or standing too close to a cruise ship).

We mentioned yesterday that the Canadian Government was poised to bring down the DMCA hammer on us humble citizens, handing the reins of power more overtly than ever to Big Media and Big Telco.

Not so, says the Government, listing off ways in which their new bill is mildly less offensive than it’s American progenitor, but I’m struck by what they don’t mention. Will cell phone unlocking, including iPhone 3G unlocking, be made illegal? And what about DVD ripping? Can I not take a movie I pay money for and put it into iTunes so I can watch it on my new iPhone 3G? And why, to balance the rights you’re stripping from Canadians, have you not long ago introduced a bill to prevent GSM monopolies in the telco industry from charging Canadians among the highest prices in the world for data?

How about that?

(Read on for the full text of the Canadian Government’s preemptive email blast)

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