This is excellent news for the home theater crowd. Kaleidescape is the maker of an innovative DVD system. They were getting sued by DVD Copy Control Associate, DVD CCA.
So some background for those who do not know what this case is about and why it is important that Kaleidescape won.
DVD CCA holds the right to license the decryption software for DVDs. So ever DVD manufacture and codec vendor has to buy a license from them to legally decrypt a DVD. Kaleidescape applied and was grant a license. They even went and said we are going to use this to create a secure and legal way to stream DVD content.
Kaleidescape consists of a server and carousel that houses the DVDs. Then you have an Ethernet based player device. The client plays an encrypted stream from the server. Here is the added trick. The server rips the DVDs to a hard drive. The reason is so that multiple people can watch the same DVD on different clients. They might even be in different parts of the movie. So for example you come home. You see the family watching a movie and think it is worth watching. So you go to another room and start the movie at the beginning while the family continues at the point they are in the movie.
Basically it is a victory for Kaleidescape in that they no longer have to worry about the DVD CCA suing them and their customers can purchase a device without the threat it will be taken away from them. And at the tens of thousands of dollars I for one did not recommend the product while they were being sued.
So does this mean that DVD ripping is legal now. Absolutely not! What it means is that if a member has a license they can compete with Kaleidescape in building similar video servers. Keep in mind that Kaleidescape in selling you the device has you sign a contract that says you will not use the product to rip DVDs illegally. For example making a copy of a friend's 5th Element and putting it in the system.
Still this is good news as we might now see more legal DVD carousels that use a hard drive to allow multiple simultaneous views.
The DVD CCA are appealing the court's decision and they are also looking to amend the CSS specifications, however this could be seen as a breach on antitrust laws.
If such an amendment was to be actioned not only would Kaleidescape be affected, but also AMX MAX and a number of other products on the market including software & hardware on Microsoft windows media centre machines.
In fact, any product that carries an official CSS licence would be in breach if the original material left the device at any time during playback.
Kaleidescape is being singled out unfairly, and for unknown reasons when even an entry level Kaleidescape solution is well out of reach for the average consumer at 20k.
To conceive that someone who can afford to purchase a Kaleidescape solution would skimp on purchasing a DVD with a 20-30 dollar value is insane.
The CCA http://www.dvdcca.org have also posted and FAQ on their website regarding the Kaleidescape court hearing.
Kaleidescape is now officially being distributed in Australia by Rabone Systems http://www.rabonesystems.com.au which is great as we have not had access to this product until now.
Bring it on I say!
Posted by: Boz | July 11, 2007 at 06:09 AM