The lawyers in the danish APG (Anti Piracy Group), threatens to take KiSS Technology to court and criminalize distribution of their new DVD-player, the KiSS DP-500.
APG insists, that the new DVD-player is targeted towards users, who will use the device to swap illegal copies of movies across the internet.
"We are currently evaluating the marketing and distribution of the DVD-player very closely, and we will go to court, if we conclude that KiSS doesn't condemn illegal use of the product in their marketing campaign" says Torben Steffensen, Lawyer of APG.
KiSS denies that the intention, is to sell the DVD-player in great numbers to moviepirates.
"We are offering nothing on our DVD-player, that isn't possible from any PC, so I do not understand, why APG is whining soo much" says Peter Christensen, CEO of KiSS Technology.
He will now contact APG and arrange a meeting, so the they can exchange views and eventually settle for an agreement.
I think KISS will be fine. At the end of the day, its just a player and it only supports the legitimate variations of DivX.
Secondly, the same backlash is not affecting mp3 cd players is it...?
Ruairi
hmm.. there is nothing legitimate whatsoever about vcd - a format almost exclusively used for bootlegs - and its basically in every dvd player currently made, so I think divx is fine (though very few hardware players will sell until they support all flavours of divx or provide simple workarounds)
I think KISS will be fine. At the end of the day, its just a player and it only supports the legitimate variations of DivX.
Yup, for now at least. But a firmware upgrade will be available shortly that will support divx3.11. Kiss announced it at CeBIT last week.
hmm.. there is nothing legitimate whatsoever about vcd - a format almost exclusively used for bootlegs - and its basically in every dvd player currently made
Don't know about that, i have "four Weddings and a Funeral" on VCD, a legal copy, and you can still buy VCD's in some shops. There was a time when it was quite popular amoung some more, up to date, tech people when it was first relesased.
It is a legal standard and thats why it's included
I feel there is nothing that can be done to KiSS really though, they dont appear to be breaking any laws anywhere!
By the way, i got the VCD free with a computer and never liked the format personally!
Cheers,
Kristian
VCD was in Asia what VHS was for us. But for reasons of humidity and space it caught on pretty big there.
hmm.. there is nothing legitimate whatsoever about vcd
Therefore the VCD home movies I send to my family in the UK to watch on their DVD players are illegitimate. Despite owning the original material, buying the blank CD (and I believe paying a surcharge to compensate the record companies for all the file-sharing I don't do), and encoding using freeware tools.
(edit) and of course having duly compensated all the people in the movie (e.g. my daughter and son)
Hmm indeed....
hmm.. there is nothing legitimate whatsoever about vcd
Therefore the VCD home movies I send to my family in the UK to watch on their DVD players are illegitimate. Despite owning the original material, buying the blank CD (and I believe paying a surcharge to compensate the record companies for all the file-sharing I don't do), and encoding using freeware tools.
(edit) and of course having duly compensated all the people in the movie (e.g. my daughter and son)
Hmm indeed....
Don't take offense Of course you can use vcd for legal purposes, but the point is that the majority of people profitting off vcds was and is bootleggers in asia.
I don't see how you can get sued for simply supporting an audio/video decoder, as long as you pay the patents what's the crime?
Knives kill people, therefore go against knives manufacturers...
VCD illegal? Bwahahaha, White Book anyone? Truth is, "bootleggers" use whatever format is used at any given time. Being analog tapes, digital discs, or whatever the people have. Anything can be mastered, and there is nothing you can do about it, except going after the individuals themselves. But going against a tool, technology or knowledge? Heh.
PD: There are plenty of legal VCDs in Asia too (copyright and licenses paid).
What the...
I might have understood had it been the other way round - makers of MP3-aware devices suing people for their silly copy protections. But now this doesn't make any sense to me...
Maybe it's because they make illegal use of some logos on the player? Which is the case, but then the story doesn't make sense.
Menno
As a proud owner of a KiSS DP-500 and Audiophile too, you may be interested to know that on firmware level 2.7.0 the box outputs 96Khz audio via S/PDIF and sounds just great.
In recent firware versions (2.7.4 is currently the latest), the output has been downsampled to 48KHz with significant impact on those with half decent external processors.
Could this degradation be deliberate ?
Cheers
xednom
Could this degradation be deliberate ?
Have you tried contacting Kiss to ask the reason of this change?
... you may be interested to know that on firmware level 2.7.0 the box outputs 96Khz audio via S/PDIF ...
Is this the case for DVD-Audio too or only DVD-Video?
Maybe it's because they make illegal use of some logos on the player? Which is the case, but then the story doesn't make sense.
I find that highly unlikely; the Anti Piracy Group seems to show little interest for anything other than the illegal distribution of software, movies and music.
If there is any sense in the Danish judiciary system (and I believe there is) they will be thrown out of court. CD-burners aren't illegal because there is a legal use for them - and it should be trivial to argue that a movie player has a legal use.
The APG see themselves as some sort of police - but without the responsibilities and restrictions of the real police.
The APG see themselves as some sort of police - but without the responsibilities and restrictions of the real police.
And I see them as some sort of RIAA-Nazi Party!