Studios settle with ESS DVD copy chip company

April 15, 2005

Last year
we reported on the Kaleidescape, an extremely expensive DVD jukebox that will
stream movies over a home network. The device allows as many as 500 DVD
movies to be ripped and stored on a server, then you can watch the movies
anywhere around the house. Well guess who doesn't like that?

The Motion Picture Association of America had
contended that ESS violated a contract by selling DVD-decoding chips to
manufacturers that did not have a license to the studios' antipiracy
technology. A California state judge blocked ESS from selling any of its
DVD chips to other unlicensed manufactures last July.

ESS said that the settlement was
amicable and that it has agreed to respect all copyright provisions.

"ESS totally supports the enforcement of all parties' valid
intellectual property rights and is committed to being a leader in
enabling content protection features," ESS Chief Executive Officer Robert
Blair said in a statement. "We look forward to working with the motion
picture industry in their worldwide enforcement efforts and in the
development of next-generation antipiracy technology."

Kaleidescape say they acquired a license for their product from the DVD Copy
Control Association, which is the licensing group for Hollywood's antipiracy
technology. But that didn't stop the DVD-CCA, they said its technology is meant
to prevent copying of DVDs, and filed suit against Kaleidescape in December. Yeah, let's all
work together on this one.

Source: C|Net