Macrovision, Copyright law, and Hollywood A-Holes

[The1TrueFrog]

Marcovision is a corporation with a process that embeds invisible lights to the top and bottom segments of a screen, causing recordings to turn out unwatchable; thus securing the studio's money and screwing the consumer.

Rarely do I bitch about anything concerning movies - but I have had this fuckin' thorn in my side about macrovision for years. Huge multi-billion dollar studios fucking us commoners in the ass with copy-protection on all their movies. Shouldn't we be entitled to make just one back-up copy? Or to splice some favorite scenes into a videotape? Or if you have family or friends living out-of-state and you want to be able to watch a movie with them to make a copy for that purpose?

If movie-copying ain't one of your major concerns, let me enlighten you on something coming to the digital age -- there will be no VCR support for television! That's right, If you want to tape your favorite TV show or sporting event, tough shit. And if you want to make a mixed CD of your favorite songs, that'll soon be impossible as well. Does anyone else agree that some of this copyright law crap is obselete and way out of hand? Especially after Universal Studios sued Sony over making a VCR claiming that we shouldn't have the option to tape a movie off television?

Just for the record, here's the current culprits of macrovision at the present:

ON VIDEOCASSETTES
Universal Studios
Dreamworks
Paramount
Buena Vista (that includes Disney, Miramax/Dimension, Touchstone, and Hollywood)
USA Films
HBO Films

ON DVD
Universal Studios
Dreamworks
Paramount
Buena Vista
USA Films
HBO Films
Artisan Entertainment
Warner Brothers
Columbia Tri-Star
Twentieth Century Fox
Tri-mark (now Lion's Gate Films)
New Line

Lots of Studios we have here, eh?

[Fisting Ackbar]

This is why I own a little device that disables Macrovision.

[The1TrueFrog]

Well I used to be able to run a movie through my computer using video-in and video-out jacks... but updating to Windows ME screwed that up... grrr...

[BubbaStrangelove]

Originally posted by Fisting Ackbar
This is why I own a little device that disables Macrovision.

I want one... Show me the way!




Right on, The1TrueFrog!

i ran a thread on MacroVision awhile back, and unfortunatley found most people are unaware, therefore not interested in this royal pain in the back row.

My complaint may irk you evem more, Frog -- I have an old, but great TV that I got, I think, in 90. The picture is great, the sound is great, reception great -- one problem -- No RCA inputs.

To hook up my DVD player I HAD to run it through my VCR. Well, this activates SuckroVision and ruins my picture.

I went and bought an adapter, thinking that would combate my problem - Well, it sort of did.

But now I have to reroute my audio wires to accomadate the extra adapter.

As it stands, I got the adapter this weekend, and I can still only hear my DVDs through the stereo, not through the TV (I had to make a choice - sound through the TV or through the stereo.)

It just sucks all in all. There is no reason they can't simmer down the MacroVision and make it so that it only activates during recording.

If you look around, Frog, you'll find LOTS of petitions on the net. Sign 'em all!



So far I've spent $40 in addition to the price of the DvD player, and need to speed about another $10 - $15 bucks more.

There are actually laws that MacroVision is violating because of scenarios like mine. Something about, by law, companies cannot force a consumer to buy extraneous items in order to use their product. I need to get in on that, because I'm getting the crap end.

[The1TrueFrog]

Originally posted by BubbaStrangelove
.....To hook up my DVD player I HAD to run it through my VCR. Well, this activates SuckroVision and ruins my picture.

I went and bought an adapter, thinking that would combate my problem - Well, it sort of did.

But now I have to reroute my audio wires to accomadate the extra adapter. .....

Yep! I went through the same thing - I have one of those cheap televisions because I'm poor and don't have money to just run to the store and buy a $900+ television set. So here I am coughing up a little more money to buy adapter plugs because without them my VCR won't receive squat.

Maybe some people think I'm a prick for whining about a technology that protects copyright laws, but put this into perspective -- anyone who has premium cable television can just tape-record the same movies that the studios are going overboard to protect! So what is the big deal? Just... grrrr... I swear, the future of our nation is looking grim.

[BubbaStrangelove]

We are not pricks for bitching about this.

MacroVision directly violates anti-trust and FCC regulations and the technology appears to be devoid of the law.

- It is illegal to manufacture technology which is not standard with the current market.

- The signals they use to fuzz the pictures are ILLEGAL. The FCC mandates a certain, uniform level for all electronic signals produced by consumer electronics. MacroVision works by indroducing an ILLEGAL signal into your TV or VCR. That's exactly how it works in fact, because our VCRs and TVs are designed to receive LEGAL signals.

It's insane that they get away with this. Personally, I understand what they are going for in their copy protection, but the way they are going about it is flat out ILLEGAL and wrong.

And the sad part, Frog, is that my TV is by no means cheap. It was top of the line 12 years ago, but the picture today is as good as it was then.


I wrote a letter to Panasonic asking them to explain why I cannot watch a DVD on my Panasonic DVD player that is going through a Panasonic VCR and into a Panasonic TV.

I still haven't gotten a reply.

[The1TrueFrog]

Well, let's see, going by stuff I looked up.. Universal Studios lost a lawsuit against Sony some years back for making a device to record programs/movies (a VCR now) - then with the MPAA folks and other studios won a battle a little later requiring that VCRs be capable of picking up macrovision on tapes which the studio pays to encode. Meaning a VCR that don't pick it up is ILLEGAL.

But, on a lighter note, I think that copyright law is going to break out into copyright anarchy soon. The reason being is it was designed to protect intellectual material, one producer from another (Warner Bros can't steal from Universal / Pearl Jam can't write a song of Pink Floyd's without permission, etc.)... what it's turned into is monopolies of billion-dollar companies fighting with the poor folks like me over who can make a copy of a movie for a friend, who can download a song..... just all the bull-shit wrapped into one package....

but population outdoes the monopolies when it comes right down to it - soon all this crap will boil over.

and in the ignorance of the studios, the people who SELL pirated copies know exactly how to get around the shit... and they can't stop it anyway... me not being a pirate and just wanting to cut a few corners being poor and starving... it's just a thorn in my little ass.

[Common Sense Man]

I have had a Macrovision breaker for over 10 years now it works great, but unfortunately with the advent of Digital that will all go away and new harder to break protection scenarios will be implimented.

If you need a Macrovision breaker they are readily available but soon I fear it will be a mute point.

Bastards!

Out................................

[The1TrueFrog]

Where are they available, and are they illegal?

[Common Sense Man]

I suppose technically they are legal as long as you make copies only for yourself, but I can assure you if the law ever got around to digging into your business it would not look good.

I bougt mine out of a catalog, the same kind of catalog you can buy pre programmed cable boxes from, you know the ones you are supposed to tell the cable company about when you buy them, wink, wink!

But I bet if you looked on line you could find tons of sources.

Mine even had S-VHS connections and would change colorized movies back to black and white.

But as I said I feel that soon it will be a moot point as VHS will go away and new digital encryptions will be implimented.

Out.................................

[free]

Maybe sometime in the future it will be a friendly place. Big corporations and the common man will hold hand in hand and sing "Why cant we be friends" on the lawn of the White House with little butterflies flying around....then we get sued by the Sony corporation for damages incurred while squeezing the CEO's hand, SmashMouth (not even the origonal artist) sues us for copyright violations, the World Wildlife Fund fines us for not securing the endangered African Yellow Backed Spinnig Butterfly, and the snipers hiding in the trees at the WhiteHouse shoots and kills us for being too close to the president.

In the words of Everclear "Ain't life wonderful"