FW: EFFector 19.31:Another DMCA Misuse: Macrovision v. Sima

["Olga Francois" <OFrancois@xxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: EFFector list [mailto:editor@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2006 3:52 PM
To: Olga Francois
Subject: EFFector 19.31: Dangerous Patent Law Ruling Threatens Free and
Open Source Software

EFFector Vol. 19, No. 31  August 23, 2006  editor@xxxxxxx
 * Another DMCA Misuse: Macrovision v. Sima

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* Another DMCA Misuse: Macrovision v. Sima

Last week, EFF joined an amicus brief filed in support of Sima in its
battle against DRM-vendor Macrovision. In essence, Macrovision is trying
to leverage the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) into a
technology mandate, forcing all digital video products in the future to
respond to its analog-era DRM system.

Macrovision's "Analog Copy Protection" (ACP) technology is intended to
degrade the quality of video copies made on analog VCRs. It does this by
intentionally adding noise to the vertical blanking interval of analog
video signals. This noise confuses the automatic gain control (AGC)
circuit used by analog VCRs. In short, Macrovision's ACP is an exploit
against a weakness in analog VCRs. Thanks to Section 1201(k) of the
DMCA, VCR makers are now forbidden by law from fixing the weakness,
which means that analog VCRs have remained vulnerable to ACP. In other
words, Macrovision's ACP is an antiquated DRM technology that owes its
effectiveness in the analog world to a government mandate.

The ACP technology, however, does not confuse digital video converters,
because these converters simply ignore material in the vertical blanking
interval (the vertical blanking interval was necessary in order to give
analog CRT displays time to reset their electron beams, something
entirely unnecessary for digital displays). Sima's products rely on a
digital conversion as part of their "clean up" process. As a result,
Macrovision's ACP noise is eliminated from the resulting video outputs.

Macrovision sued Sima, arguing that "stripping" of ACP noise from analog
video signals constitutes circumvention of a "copy-protection"
technology, and that Sima's devices therefore violate Section 1201(b) of
the DMCA. The district court granted a preliminary injunction against
Sima, which Sima has now appealed to the Federal Circuit Court of
Appeals.

Macrovision's legal arguments are bogus for a variety of reasons,
detailed in the amicus brief. But there is a larger point here, as well
-- this is an example of a DRM vendor trying to use the DMCA to turn its
decades-old, analog-world DRM technology into a digital-age federal
technology mandate. If Macrovision wins, digital video innovators will
be stuck carrying the albatross of Macrovision's analog noise for years
to come.

For the brief:
<http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/Macrovision_v_Sima/sima_brief.pdf>

For more on the DMCA:
<http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/>

For the original version of this post:
<http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004878.php>