Consumer advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation has weighed in o...
Consumer advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation has weighed in on Sima’s side in a suit filed last year by Macrovision. The suit filed last year in U.S. Dist. Court, Manhattan, alleged that Sima’s video enhancers infringed Macrovision’s patented copy protection…
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technology and violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by allowing consumers to make unauthorized copies of copyrighted DVDs. The enhancers strip out the Vertical Blanking Interval on the video signal, where the flags for Macrovision Analog Copy Protection are stored, Macrovision said. That violates the DMCA ban on circumventing copy protection mechanisms, Macrovision claimed. It said the DMCA specifically recognizes its technology as a broadly adopted copy protection system that can’t legally be bypassed and is used for VCRs, DVDs and part of the Advanced Access Content System mandated for Blu-ray and HD DVD. In Macrovision’s suit, the district court granted a preliminary injunction against Sima, which Sima has appealed to the U.S. Appeals Court, Federal Circuit. In its amicus brief filed on behalf of a coalition that includes CCIA, CEA, HRRC and the Library Copyright Alliance in support of Sima, the EFF claimed that Macrovision is trying to contort the DMCA into a technology mandate forcing all digital video products in the future to respond to Macrovision’s analog-era DRM system. Macrovision didn’t comment.