July 12, 2001

9:47 PM

Amazonis essentially going against the will of the MPAA by offering (followed the link from the Thirteen Days dvd) information regarding a work around to RCE (which prevents Region 1 dvd's from being played on region free dvd players). It's funny how the MPAA has taken 2600 to court because they posted links to DeCSS but they haven't made any moves against Amazon. CSS isn't protection against copying, it's really just used to prevent people from importing dvd's.
posted by dave (6 comments total)

Not funny, Money. Simple as that. 2600 could never hope to pay for the flesh eating lawyers that Bezos must have laying about.
Besides, attacking what is mildly obscure and vaguely sinister (hackers! eeeew!) to the vast mainstream isn't the same as going after a much ballyhooed darling of the "New Economy".
The MPAA only needs to be seen as so evil before it becomes counterproductive for them to do so.
posted by dong_resin at 12:02 AM on July 13, 2001

And why can't we get a good movie at the heart of this region thing?
Thirteen Days? Battlefield Earth?
What next, Killer Klowns From Outer Space?
posted by dong_resin at 12:06 AM on July 13, 2001

Oh the wonderful double standards of corporate America.

As far as the list of movies goes I'd say they have a quality line-up. I mean The Patriot, Vertical Limit, The Wedding Planner and Hollow Man are all first rate movies that people are going to buy.

I guess the plan is to put RCE on crappy movies so when people start getting mad about not being able to watch the movies that they purchased, the MPAA can say that the technology has been around for years.
posted by dave at 5:51 AM on July 13, 2001

As far as the list of movies goes I'd say they have a quality line-up. I mean The Patriot, Vertical Limit, The Wedding Planner and Hollow Man are all first rate movies that people are going to buy.

heh.
posted by chrisege at 6:58 AM on July 13, 2001

I am not sure you can argue that posting a work-around for the RCE violates the Millennium Copyright Act.
posted by tranquileye at 8:23 AM on July 13, 2001

I am not sure you can argue that posting a work-around for the RCE violates the Millennium Copyright Act.


'member this is the MPAA we're talking about. It's already illegal to link to a copy of DeCSS as you're linking to a document which can be used to override the copyright holder's access controls. Amazon.com linking to the RCE instructions is in the same vein.

Don't construe that as my support for the MPAA: It's not. I despise them.
posted by nathan_teske at 10:00 AM on July 13, 2001