A St. Louis-based software maker and several major film studios – including Sony, AOL Time Warner, Walt Disney, Universal, MGM, Pixar, and Saul Zaentz Company – delivered arguments to a federal judge May 15, as the studios moved to get a pre-emptive lawsuit against them by the software maker dismissed.
Federal judge Susan Illston heard arguments from 321 Studios, which makes and sells DVD X Copy and DVD Copy Plus programs, which wants her to rule that the programs don't violate the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Illston also heard the studios argue that potential billions would be lost if 321's copy software let people make perfect DVD copies and store the files on the Internet, according to Reuters.
"They put on their case. We put on our case, and Judge Illston took it under advisement," said 321 President Robert Moore to the news wire. Illston hadn't indicated when she might rule on the arguments. 321 Studios first filed the pre-emptive suit in 2002.
Moore said 321 has sold about 500,000 versions of the softwares, which he said teachers use to copy portions of DVDs to use in class or seminar presentations, according to Reuters. He said that and similar usage falls under fair use provisions in copyright law.
But the Motion Picture Association of America argued that fair use isn't an issue because the 321 programs let users make an end-run around copy protection technology, Reuters said. "At the end of the day, this is not a lawsuit against consumers or about copyright infringement," MPAA attorney Russell Frackman argued. "It is a lawsuit about a company that traffics in an illegal product."
