RE: [dvd-discuss] Macrovision and DMCA

[Richard Hartman <hartman(at)onetouch.com>]

!


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dean Sanchez [mailto:DSanchez@fcci-group.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 12:58 PM
> To: DVD discussion Group (E-mail)
> Subject: [dvd-discuss] Macrovision and DMCA
> 
> 
> I was trying to repair a Disney VHS that was partially eaten 
> by the tape
> player yesterday.  Actually, I was copying the good sections from the
> original to a better quality new tape to make a tape that was viewable
> because I don't have a tape splicer to cut out the damaged 
> sections.  If
> you have young children and allow them to watch Disney 
> movies, you will
> know that Disney VHS tapes are notorious for being low quality.  I've
> had to do this a number of times for different Disney tapes.  After 10
> plays or so, the quality of the video starts deteriorating quickly.
> While I was doing it, it made me think about an issue that I 
> that I had
> questions about during the 2600 trial and kept meaning to ask 
> about but
> never got around to doing.  The issue is this:
> 
> One of the arguments made during the trail either by the plaintiffs or
> Jack Valenti was if someone needed to exercise fair use and extract
> excerpts or make a backup copy, they could do so from VHS.  However,
> that statement was blatantly false, but no one (that I'm 
> aware of) ever
> called them on it.  Macrovision protection is used on most retail VHS
> tapes and, since all VHS recorder/players manufactured in the last
> couple of years (I'm not sure of the date) are required to have
> Macrovision circuitry, without special equipment, it is impossible to
> make a quality reproduction.  I would assume that the equipment needed
> to by-pass the Macrovision is (or will soon) be illegal to manufacture
> and purchase.  So making a copy or excerpt of a VHS tape 
> would also be a
> violation of the DMCA, wouldn't it?
> 
> Now, I know we didn't want to go down the road of allowing 
> the industry
> to win on the argument that to substitute a lower quality 
> product (VHS)
> for DVD would constitute fair use; however, shouldn't we have pointed
> out the misinformation?  Or was it raised?
> 
> 


The proper rebuttal would be that fair use of a VHS tape is a completely
separate issue from fair use of a DVD -- even if they contain the same
movie.

It would be like saying that it's okay to block off 3rd street because
5th is still open.


-- 
-Richard M. Hartman
hartman@onetouch.com

186,000 mi./sec ... not just a good idea, it's the LAW