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ireland, I am sure you have already heard, but Robert Moore the founder of 321 Studios passed away this past weekend after a very courageous fight against cancer. Robert was really responsible for opening so many doors for consumer rights that I feel we should get some type of posting up on Afterdawn. Can you facilitate this?

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OCTOBER 2003
Piracy Threat Has Hollywood Fighting for Its Rights

Robert Moore thinks his product is harmless. Hollywood thinks it's illegal.

Mr. Moore's company, 321 Studios makes software sold under the name DVD X Copy, which allows people to make copies of the DVD movies they purchase. Mr. Moore says his product's sole purpose is to enable consumers to stockpile "backup copies" of their movie collections, in case the originals are ruined.

"Some of our biggest customers are families who were on their second copy of 'Shrek' or their second copy of 'Batman,'" Mr. Moore says.

Yeah, right, say executives at the Hollywood movie studios, whose profits over the past few years have been propped up by the rapid rise of the DVD. The studios see 321's software as nothing less than a tool for pirates to make perfect copies of movies that can then be sold for illicit profit or traded on the Internet.

"Who are we kidding?" says Russell Frackman, a lawyer representing the Motion Picture Association of America in a legal battle with 321 Studios. "How many people are making backup copies?"

Movie studios are particularly intent on stopping digital piracy of their product before it becomes as rampant as it did in the music industry. The studios regard 321 as an outlaw operation not unlike Napster-and they want to stop it before it's too late.

Mr. Moore's case is somewhat different from some of the previous legal battles over the protection of entertainment copyrights, however. For one thing, he started this court fight. Knowing that the company was beginning to attract the scorn of the movie industry, 321 moved pre-emptively to establish the legal legitimacy of its products by filing a suit against the studios in federal court last year. It argues that the 321 software doesn't violate key provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the 1998 federal law that attempted to strike a balance between entertainment and media concerns in regard to digital copyright issues.

Mr. Moore has quickly mastered some of the familiar slogans of the copyright wars. "We're not about free use, we're about fair use," he says repeatedly, making the case that consumers have the right to make personal copies of the recorded movies and music they purchase. He adds: "We're not Napsterites. We're not pirates. Nobody is using the application for piracy."

The movie studios have fired back with both a counterclaim and a motion to get the 321 Studios suit dismissed. Their basic case is fairly simple. The DVD movies they sell are protected by technology called the content-scramble system, which is meant to prevent the discs' contents from being accessed or copied without authorization. According to the MPAA, DVD X Copy operates by circumventing the protection technology-a violation, it says, of an anticircumvention provision in the 1998 copyright law. "The case is pretty simple and straightforward," says Mr. Frackman.

Hollywood also argues that there isn't a need in the marketplace for consumers to copy movies, not only because DVDs are durable, but also because films are available through so many different distribution channels-not just on DVDs, but also on pay-per-view outlets, in hotel rooms, on airplane flights, and in both cable and broadcast TV runs.

Mr. Moore says he has taken steps to ensure that his product isn't used by pirates, including disclaimers and warnings that are intended to discourage more than one copy of a disc from being made, and features that allow the source of any illicit copies to be traced.

Still, the legal fight is taking a toll. "It is daunting," Mr. Moore says. "I would be lying if I said it hasn't cost me a lot of restless nights. I certainly worry about my own freedom and whether I'm doing the right thing. But at the end of the day, I've got a good wife and I've got a good family. They know who I am and that I'm not out to cheat the studios out of anything."

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per lawman
I for one, would like to offer my condolences to Roberts family.
Some of us Rag Tags, had a friendly association with him through his DVD XCopy,
Either Beta testing his software / Moderating his forums / Or both,

Even though some of us went our separate ways with him in
disagreement,
But none of us would have born any real malice to wards him, and hear of his passing, with shock and sorrow, and in the knowledge that life is too short to bear grudges.

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