Macrovision has sued Sima Products and Interburn Enterprises, accusing the two companies of infringing on Macrovision's DVD copy control technology and violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
"The Sima and Interburn products have very limited commercial uses other than to circumvent Macrovision's copy protection technology, and are marketed by Sima and Interburn for use in copying DVDs, among other types of media," said Macrovision chief executive Bill Krepick in announcing the suits.
Sima and Interburn each make and sell DVD-copying tools able to circumvent Macrovision's Analog Copy Protection process without Macrovision license or authorization, Macrovision said, announcing their suit. "As such," a company statement said, "these infringing products allow users to make new unlicensed DVD disc copies by stripping Macrovision’s patented ACP technology."
The DMCA bans circumvention of copy protection devices and technology. The Macrovision suits wants a stop to sales of Sima and Interburn products.
Sima is declining comment on the Macrovision suit until the company is served with the filing, while InterBurn has not returned queries for comment as of this writing.
InterBurn, ironically, makes an older version of a product already quashed by litigation: the original DVD X Copy, once made by St. Louis-based 321 Studios, but challenged in several court cases until 321 finally agreed in 2004 to remake the product and remove the tool that cracked commercial DVD copyright protection.
