I’ve signed up to twitter, mostly because I’m a shameless follower. But hey, maybe there’ll be a prize…
Kaleidescape DVD Copying Case Goes to Trial
March 22, 2007 – 5:08 pmI’ve been following [this case](http://www.kaleidescape.com/company/legal.html) for a while, ever since I saw the Kaleidescape system at a home theater dealer.
*PC Magazine* is reporting that the case is now moving to trail. Kaleidescape is, according to the article, arguing that the copying done by their system falls under the “Fair Use” exception to copyright.
However, Kaleidescape is not being sued for Copyright Infringement, for which a defence of Fair Use might apply.
They are being sued for violating the terms of a contract. Namely, when they signed a contract to license the CSS playback system, they allegedly agreed to not do what they are doing.
So, I suspect this case will rest of the terms of the contract and the court won’t make a ruling on the broader question of fair use in relation to the DMCA.
If Kaleidescape had not signed a license for CSS, then their product would be violating the DMCA (bypassing a technological protection measure) and then they’d be liable to a copyright infringement lawsuit from the movie studios. That would have lead to a better test of a fair use for format shifting right than this case will be.
In my next post, I’ll explain more about what this system does and why the DVD Copy Control Association does not want it to exist (in my opinion).
Report DVD Ripping Questions as TOS Violations on Apple Forums
March 16, 2007 – 12:37 amApple is about to release a new product, the AppleTV, that lets you watch movies and TV shows purchased from the iTunes Store on your television.
Just like the iPod and CDs, most people already have a number of movies on DVD that they won’t want to buy again through the Apple Store. What they’d like is a way to rip the DVDs into iTunes, just like they can with their CDs.
Most of the songs on an iPod come from people’s CDs, not from music they bought through the iTunes Store. Similarly, I expect that most of the value of the Apple TV for most people will be to watch the DVDs they’ve already purchased.
And, in fact, many threads on the newly create Apple Discussion [Forum for the Apple TV](http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1133) are people asking for help in doing exactly that.
Now, two things to note:
1. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes ripping DVDs **illegal**.
2. Apple’s Terms of Service for the discussion forum state:
>3. Keep within the Law
>No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
Now follow along with me:
* Apple wants people to perceive the Apple TV as a worthwhile purchase.
* The Apple TV becomes much more valuable if people can rip their DVDs
* Ripping DVDs is illegal
* Asking about illegal acts are a violation of Apple’s Terms of Use for the discussion forum.
The solution? On every post is a handy link to report a post as a violation. Use it to report any DVD ripping posts you find.
Why? Because maybe it will make the average Joe more aware of the flaws in the DMCA. Or, perhaps it will push Apple into spending more money lobbying for copyright reform.
OK, I’m mostly joking. But really, go join [EFF](http://www.eff.org) or [The Open Rights Group](http://www.openrightsgroup.org).
OS X 10.4.9 Update Adds Slight Delay to Eject Key
March 15, 2007 – 11:02 amStrange. After installing the 10.4.9 update to OS X, the eject key didn’t seem to work on my G5. I also usually put the Mac to sleep by using the ^Eject key combination. That was when I first noticed the problem.
It seems, on [further investigation](http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=890008&tstart=0), that Apple added a slight delay to the eject key so that if you tap it, it doesn’t react, but if you hold it down for a fraction of a second longer than normal, it works.
This is one of those clever little Apple usability things that I like so much. It’s subtle, it solves a problem (more so for laptop users I expect) and it doesn’t require lots of training. Once you’re shown what to do, it’s easy to remember.
Now, it would have been nice if they’d documented the change in the release notes for the update, but hey, can’t have everything.
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Ombudsman In Nynex
March 14, 2007 – 11:01 pmCory Doctorow wrote an article for Information Week where he describes the [trouble his girlfriend had getting her laptop fixed](http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197801024).
He writes “I posted Alice’s story to Boing Boing, the popular Weblog I co-edit, where it was seen by hundreds of thousands of potential Sony customers. By close of business, her cell phone was ringing — it was Sony.”
Lucky for Alice, her boyfriend co-edits one of the most widely read blogs. But, the rest of us aren’t so lucky. His solution for the rest of us is for companies to have an Ombudsman who have the power and remit to fix problems that fall through the crack of an organisation.
It reminded me of something that happened to me when I was moving out of an apartment at University. I was leaving in about a week so I called up the various utilities and gave them my moving out date. Unfortunately, [NyNex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYNEX), the telephone company, turned my phone off about half an hour later.
This would not have been so bad, except I still hadn’t found a place to live the following school year so I needed the phone (this was before cell phones became ubiquitous). So I called them back and told them they’d made a mistake and cut off the phone too early.
They told me I’d have my phone service on again in about an hour. Thinking everything was sorted, I went out to lunch. Just to check, I called myself from a pay-phone and guess what? No service. Calling them back and again explaining the problem elicited another promise to have the phone service back on within an hour.
As you might guess, still no phone service after the second hour of waiting. Finally, on the third attempt to get the problem fixed, I got through to someone who was less helpful, but more honest. The customer service rep made it clear that they could not turn on the phone service again for at least two weeks. This was, according to him, because “telephone systems are very complicated”.
That was the wrong thing to say to me. You see, at the time, my uncle was a programmer for Bell Labs and worked on and with a lot of the telephone equipment that sat in the nations telephone exchanges. I knew dam well that the telephone system was basically a computer system and that turning on my phone service was simply a matter of entering the right command in the system. Of course, the fact they’d manage to turn it off in less than half-an-hour didn’t seem to phase this guys logic.
In an attempt to trigger some sort of “oh crap he’s going to get us in trouble” path, I demanded to know the address of the regulatory body that deals with consumer complaints and the address of the company president. It was then that the representative offered me the number for the “President’s Help Line”.
I liked the sound of that! Calling the number, I got through to someone where I calmly explained the problems I’d had that day, the number of people who’d said I’d have service back within a few hours, and the eventual admission that nothing was going to be done for weeks. I also explained about my uncle and that I knew it could be done, if they’d just bypass the red type. I was polite and calm, but I also made it clear I wanted my phone service back. She asked me to hold on for a moment.
After about five minutes, she came back and said she was sorry for the delay, my phone will be back on shortly, and she hopes that I accept their apology. Sure enough, within about twenty minutes my phone was back on.
I don’t know how many companies have an equivalent of a President’s Help Line. But, I’ve found it’s worth asking.
Finally, Cory, what the hell is your girlfriend doing buying a [Sony](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal)?
