Redbox will begin adding Blu-ray titles to its 22,000 kiosks starting in the Q2 2010, says parent company Coinstar CEO Paul Davis.
So far, the company has been only testing Blu-ray releases in its kiosks.
“[Blu-ray] strengthens our position to meet consumer demand,” adds Davis, although he concedes that they will not cost $1.00 like DVD releases do. When asked about the price, he said they have not determined a price, but they will “for sure be higher than our standard DVDs.”
Result for: dvd releases
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed another request for the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to give a waiver on the 2003 “plug and play” order which prohibits altering a video stream to disable the analog or digital signal to consumers home theater equipment. The MPAA first made the request in June 2008, but consumer groups such as Public Knowledge opposed the waiver and former FCC Chair Kevin Martin didn’t like the idea either.
The MPAA claims that the waiver, which will allow the use of “selectable output control” (SOC) measures, will enable studios to link up with broadcasters to air pre-DVD releases that will benefit consumers. “Physically challenged or elderly consumers who have limited mobility would have greater choice in movie viewing options,” a filing from the trade group reads.
Pro-consumer groups are not convinced however, largely because the use of SOC will inevitable disable some HDTV’s in the United States when they try to view such broadcasts. Public Knowledge warned that SOC would, “break all eleven million HDTVs in the US that don’t have digital input” and allow the MPAA to control when and how you view content with equipment you have already paid for.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) went even further and said that as many as 20 million HDTV sets could cease to function as they did when they were bought. Public Knowledge then came back to add that CEA figures are actually a low estimate, because you also have to account for digital video recorders (DVR) and other consumer electronics hardware that can only receive from analog connections.
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Result for: dvd releases
RealNetworks has asked a Federal judge for permission to add an antitrust complaint against the MPAA to their existing lawsuit against the the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD-CCA). The suit began as a preemptive strike to establish that their DVD copying software, RealDVD, doesn’t violate their license with the DVD-CCA.
Although the MPAA isn’t directly involved in the licensing of DVD decryption technology, there can be no question they are behind the very existence of CSS encryption, which makes it illegal to rip DVDs in the US.
In their filing, RealNetworks lawyers wrote “The CSS agreement is being used to extend a legally granted monopoly over content into separate markets – to prevent competition from technologies that would allow a copy of content for fair use purposes. But the making of a copy of a studio DVD is authorized fair use under the Copyright Act.”
The biggest hurdle to most fair use arguments is the very nature of fair use. It is not, as many people believe, a right given to the public.
In reality it’s a set of exceptions to the exclusive rights granted copyright holders by law. It’s a subtle, but very important, distinction.
The problem is largely one of vague wording in the fair use clause of US copyright law. Except for the few cases where specific uses are mentioned, judges are compelled to assume it can’t contradict other laws, including the DMCA’s anti-circumvention language.
In other words the DMCA must be interpreted in a way that allows copyright holders to nullify fair use. Ultimately the real question to decide this case will be whether the studios are using their monopoly on movie distribution to stifle legal innovation.
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