321 Studios is calling for fair use with '5 days of protest'

321 Studios has complied with a Friday deadline and are now offering their software online without a descrambling tool. A California judge ruled on February 20 that the DVD X Copy software was in violation of movie copyrights. The new version no longer bundles a freely available ripper that can circumvent the CSS copyright protection.

The St. Louis based company has stated that one million copies of two questioned products, DVD Copy Plus and DVD X Copy have been sold across the nation. They say that they will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars destroying the versions with built in descrambling - they also have already spent millions in legal fees.

The movie industry is claiming the consumer has no right to back up a DVD movie via software and a burner, which at the moment seems to be the case. 321 Studios is campaigning for fair use, saying we should have the ability to protect our investment and says that is the intended purpose of their products.That campaign has given way to Monday's planned launch of "Five Days of Protest," during which consumers though 321-sponsored www.protectfairuse.org will be asked to write, call, e-mail or fax newspaper editors, Hollywood studios and federal lawmakers on the company's behalf.

"It's to let these people know we're law-abiding citizens, not a bunch of pirates," said Robert Moore, 321's president and founder. "This (software) is for making fair use of legally acquired digital property, for doing what we want to do with our own stuff. Apparently, that message has not gotten across."

View: Complete article at CDFreaks